Adversity: Friendship's Most Challenging Test
by Jake Miller
Summary: Amidst the strife of a drawn out quarrel with Alvin, Brittany is taken severely ill. Will Alvin be able to set aside his differences and make amends with Brittany? Will there friendship endure such a taxing ordeal?
1. Chapter 1

_A/N: I'm back! Sort of… I actually wrote this story a long long time ago and forgot about it, this is actually the fourth story I've ever written (fun fact that nobody cares about) but don't worry I just got done revamping it so it's better now._

 _For those who don't know, I have a very strange writing style apparently; I completely write a story then subdivide it into chapters then I post the chapters one by one as to not overwhelm my audience. I've been told this is strange but it's the way I like it, the last time I tried writing a story chapter by chapter and posting it, was "AATC 3: The Story of Us" my more dedicated readers saw what happened with that one… it only took me 3 years to write that last chapter. When I write them this way I can guarantee you guys will get a full story because it's already done. Anyhow, I'll try to update this one once a week unless you guys want me to update more? What do you think? Is a week good or would you rather see every other day? Three times a week? You tell me. Ok that's enough of me blabbering on go ahead and enjoy the chapter and please review._

 _As an FYI this is written in 80's style animation._

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"You're such a jerk Alvin!" Brittany shouted at the red clad chipmunk before stomping down the upstairs hallway of the Seville house. Alvin who was thoroughly entertained watched still laughing as the black ink continued to drip off the chipette as she angrily stalked away from the chipmunk.

Brittany stormed down the stairs and towards the front door only to be stopped by Simon who was just leaving the living room, "Brittany?... what happened to you?" the bespectacled chipmunk asked. Brittany turned around sharply, "Alvin happened!" she replied sharply before stomping out the front door. Simon stood in the doorway and watched Brittany walk away for a moment before slowly shutting the door, shaking his head Simon headed up the stairs and found Alvin still standing in the doorway of his bedroom laughing about his great prank.

"Ink bottle on top of the door?" Simon asked knowing most of Alvin's common pranks.

Alvin shook his head as he began to control his laughter, "better, bag of ink taped to the door but hanging over the top so when the door is shut the bag bursts".

Simon shrugged lightly, when it came to elaborate pranks Alvin could out think anybody, "clever" his younger brother said shaking his head. Alvin nodded in reply, "you should have seen the look on her face… it was priceless".

"You better hope she can get that stuff out of her hair or I'll be laughing at the priceless look on your face when she's killing you" Simon replied with a chuckle as he continued into his bedroom.

Alvin shrugged off the thought as he walked down the hallway still chuckling to himself.

"I hate him!" Brittany shouted as she dried her hair in front of the bathroom mirror, pausing she began to inspect her soft auburn hair to find several darker spots caused by the ink.

"It won't be permanent Brittany" Eleanor said from behind her sister, her arms crossed as she leaned on the doorframe.

"I don't care!" Brittany shouted, "it'll still be there for several weeks maybe even a month".

"Brittany, don't you think you're overreacting just a little bit?" Eleanor asked.

"No" Brittany retorted, "he poured ink in my hair".

Eleanor thought about this a moment before agreeing with her older sister, "you're right… you're not overreacting".

"Of course I'm not… I never overreact" the older chipette retorted putting her hands on her hips.

"That's stretching it quite a bit" Eleanor said with an honest grin, gaining a glare from her sister.

Brittany was about to retort but groaned in slight pain instead as she pressed her palm against her forehead, "I'm getting a headache" she mumbled. For the last couple of weeks she had been getting very painful throbbing headaches that would last for anywhere between a few minutes to a few hours.

"Again?" Eleanor asked curiously, "it's not like you to get so many headaches… maybe you're coming down sick?"

"I hope not" Brittany said softly, "I hate being sick".

Eleanor shook her head as she followed her sister out of the bathroom and down to the living room.

The next day the chipettes walked to school with the chipmunks just like every day but today was quieter than usual. Alvin like usual walked in the front but Brittany who usually would take lead with Alvin hung in the back because she had no intention of talking to or going near the chipmunk in red that she despised at the current point in time.

"I wonder if Brittany is still mad at me?" Alvin asked Simon with a grin, hushing his voice so she couldn't hear him. Simon glanced back over his shoulder towards Brittany then turned back to Alvin, "in my opinion, mad is an extreme understatement of her current attitude towards you" Simon replied after seeing the cold hard death stares the chipette was giving the back of Alvin's head.

"Do you think she'll try to get revenge?" Alvin asked hopeful that the answer would be yes so he could embark on a full-fledged prank war with someone.

Simon didn't have to think long before he came up with the obvious answer, "almost definitely" he replied.

"Good" Alvin replied rubbing his hands together deviously.

"You actually want her to attack back?" Simon asked curiously not all that surprised by his brother's response.

"Yeah" Alvin replied as if it was obvious, "if she attacks back it gives me a reason to prank her again, whereas if I just set her up again with another prank it'll make me look like a bully or something".

"Alvin… your logic is terribly flawed" Simon replied picking up his pace to get away from his brother.

"Whatever" Alvin mumbled under his breath letting a smile creep across his face, as he began to scheme his next move against new chipette rival in his imaginary prank war.

"You aren't planning revenge on Alvin are you?" Jeanette asked her older sister as she walked just behind her.

"Me?" Brittany asked innocently causing Jeanette to pick up her pace to walk beside her and stare at her for a moment. Jeanette's questioning stare was enough to quickly break her older sister, "ok… I was thinking about it".

Jeanette shook her head sadly, "Brittany… getting revenge on him won't help anything it'll only give him a reason to attack back then you will want revenge on him for that and it'll turn into an endless cycle, just let it go this time and call it quits when you're ahead".

"Are you kidding?" Brittany retorted, "someone has to teach him a lesson".

"And it isn't doesn't have to be you" Jeanette interjected.

"Relax Jeanette, I'm only going to give him a small taste of his own medicine" Brittany replied patting her sister on the shoulder making her sigh in defeat as she pushed her hand up between her glasses and her face.

School passed by that day just like every other day slow and tedious for some and quick and educational for others. The later afternoon hours however found the chipmunks and chipettes in their respective homes attempting to do their homework. Well most of them anyway… Alvin laid on his bed thinking not about his homework but about his new war efforts against Brittany, "how should I get back at her?" he asked himself out loud.

The youngest chipmunk lifted his head from his homework and looked at his brother curiously, "get back at who?" Theodore asked from his bed where he was reading from one of his textbooks.

"Brittany" Alvin replied.

"She hasn't even done anything to you yet" Simon responded the annoyance for his brother's actions very clear in his voice.

"But she's planning to… I just know it, and I want to be ready when she does do something" Alvin said tossing his cap into the air and catching it again.

Physically face palming at his brother's statement Simon readjusted his glasses, "Alvin" the bespectacled chipmunk said addressing his brother before pausing thoughtfully as he thought about exactly what he wanted to say.

After a moment Alvin grew annoyed by this long pause, "well out with it Simon".

The bespectacled chipmunk shook his head, "never mind… you wouldn't understand anyway" Simon said getting up and leaving the room.

Alvin groaned to himself as he stood up, he knew his younger brother all too well, he could tell by the sound in his voice that what his brother had to say was important and he had peaked the chipmunks curiosity. "Simon" Alvin called out after his brother softly leaving the room.

Simon who had stopped at the top of the stairs, upon hearing his name turned to face his brother, "what do you want Alvin?" he asked irritated by his brother.

"What were you going to tell me… it sounded like it might have been important" Alvin said curious as to what his brother could have wanted to say to him. "Oh it was nothing too important… I was only going to tell you how wrong you are".

Alvin looked at him with a blank look prompting him on, "just a few seconds ago you were sitting in our bedroom plotting how to get revenge on someone before they even did done anything to you, you should be thinking about how to apologize to her for what you did".

"Apologize?" Alvin asked as if his brother was crazy, "you've got to be kidding? All I did was pour a little ink in her hair".

Simon shook his head briefly, "you did more than that Alvin, sure physically all you did was put some ink in her hair, but more importantly you broke her trust".

Alvin was silent for a long while as he thought about the deeper harms of his small and insignificant action. "I honestly never looked at it that way…" he said slowly letting his voice trail off.

"Now what are you going to do to rectify the situation?" Simon asked curious if their little discussion had made any progress.

Thinking fast on how to remove himself from this discussion before it went any further Alvin replied with "I'm going to go do my homework", with that stated the red clad chipmunk darted back into his bedroom to complete his homework.

Simon sighed softy as he began walking towards their bedroom as well, "it's a start I suppose" the tall chipmunk mumbled to himself.

After school the next day Brittany spent most of her afternoon rigging the door of her bedroom with a booby trap to ensnare Alvin and teach him a lesson. "How do you know he's gonna come over here today?" Eleanor asked as she watched her older sister run a string from the door knob to the top of the door frame.

"I know he's coming over today because if he doesn't come over by himself for whatever reason, I'll call him and ask him to come over" Brittany replied as she tied the string off.

"I don't know Brittany… somehow this just doesn't feel right" Eleanor replied.

"Of course it's right… he poured ink in in my hair so I'm just going to give it back to him" Brittany said turning to face her sister.

"Just leave me out of this then" Eleanor said walking through the open door leaving Brittany alone to finish her trap.

"Brittany… I'm sorry" Alvin said softly looking at the mirror in his bathroom, shaking his head he took a deep breath, "I'm kinda sorry for dumping ink in your hair", he said trying a different approach. "Why does apologizing have to be so hard?" he asked not expecting an answer.

But an answer was provided for him, "It's not" Simon replied from the doorway causing Alvin to jump.

"It is too" Alvin shot back as he recovered from the shock of Simon coming in from out of nowhere.

"Not really, just go over there and say, 'Brittany I'm sorry for dumping ink in your hair the other day', it's as simple as that, she'll more than likely forgive you then you come home and you might be able to live with your conscience for a while" Simon replied with a slight smile.

"You think I should go over right now?" Alvin asked skeptically hoping Simon would advise waiting at least a week or maybe two.

To Alvin's dismay Simon said nearly the exact opposite, "no better time than the present" Simon replied leading his older brother out of the bathroom.

"I don't know Simon… apologizing to Brittany… it just isn't my style" Alvin said as they walked down the stairs.

"Obviously… you would rather dump more ink in her hair and call it even" Simon said shaking his head.

Once at the front door Simon opened it for him and motioned for him to go out, "it's getting dark out Simon" Alvin said looking out into the gathering dusk.

Looking at his older brother with a 'really? That's the best excuse you've got' expression Simon pointed outside, "she lives two blocks away, you'll be fine… now get going" the taller chipmunk replied pushing Alvin out the front door.

Alvin quickly turned to go back inside when Simon slammed the door shut; "fine…" the red clad chipmunk muttered then started walking towards his friend's house at a sluggishly slow speed. "This isn't that hard" he said to himself as he began to walk towards the chipette's house, "I've had to apologize for worse things, like the time we dropped the pudding filled piano down the stairs… or the time I accidently blew up Simon's lab and put a good sized hole in the living room floor… this was nothing, a little ink, no big deal".

Finding himself in front of the Miller's house he strode up to the front door and knocked lightly hoping nobody would answer but Miss Miller promptly came to the door, what Alvin thought was the fastest she had ever answered the door before. "Why hello Alvin" Miss Miller greeted cheerfully.

"Hi Miss Miller… I came to see Brittany, is she here?" Alvin asked hoping for a no but he couldn't be that lucky.

"She's upstairs" the older woman said before leading Alvin into the living room.

Taking a deep breath at the foot of the stairs Alvin began walking up the old Victorian's creaky old stairs. Reaching the top of the stairs Alvin turned right down the hall and knocked on the open door frame of the chipette's bedroom's open door. Brittany who was sitting at a small desk at the far side of the room turned around quickly upon hearing the knock. Seeing he had her attention the chipmunk swallowed hard, "hey" Alvin greeted with a smile, "you got most of the ink out of your hair… that's good".

"Yeah it is" Brittany said gritting her teeth as she stood up crossing her arms.

"I just came by to say hi…mostly" Alvin said walking into the bedroom, his hands placed shyly behind his back.

Brittany watched him for a few seconds as he walked around then said, "well you said hi… so now you can leave" Brittany said pulling the door open more arming her trap that was set up over the bedroom doorframe.

Alvin stopped pacing the room, and looked at her for a second before adverting his gaze to the floor; "I-I'm…I'm sorry for spilling the ink in your hair..." he said quickly then turned hastily to leave.

Taken by surprise by what he had said Brittany quickly grabbed his arm to stop him from leaving through the bedroom door, "wait… you're sorry?" she asked somewhat surprised.

"Yeah" he replied hotly noting her surprised tone as he jerked his arm from her grasp "is it that hard to believe I would apologize to someone?"

"No" Brittany replied quickly "but-".

Alvin however quickly cut her off, "it wasn't even meant for you… Simon was supposed to walk through the door next, I didn't even know you were in the house" Alvin replied as he continued to walk to the door.

Brittany stood in a thoughtful silence for a few seconds before she noticed Alvin stepping towards the thin wire strung across the doorframe opening a mere few inches from the floor making it impossible to see. "Alvin, wait! Don't go!" she shrieked but her warning was too late, Alvin stepped through the door catching his foot on the string causing the can of paint to tip drenching the chipmunk in bright pink paint. Turning around slowly he saw Brittany standing a few feet off, grimacing with a guilty expression plastered on her face.

Ignoring her facial expressions the chipmunk took a few steps towards her which she reacted to by backing away, "I come over here to apologize to you and this is what I get!" he shouted at her, Brittany didn't know what to say. "I hate you… and if I never see you again it'll still be too soon" Alvin said before running down the stairs and out of the Miller's house.

Frozen in place the chipette tried to mentally process what had just happened "what have I done?!" Brittany cried out as the realization of what just happened began to sink in. Hearing her sister from another room Jeanette slowly walked into the room being careful to avoid the small puddle of paint on the floor, "what happened… your plan backfire?" Jeanette asked finding her sister on her knees a few feet from the door.

"He came to apologize!" Brittany shouted, "and to show my gratitude I covered him in paint!"

"I would say I told you this was a bad idea… but I feel that wouldn't do any good right now" Jeanette said walking towards her sister who looked very upset over the events that had just unfolded.

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 _A/N: Well there you have it. That's chapter one, this chapter and the next couple are mostly build up material for the plot that is still developing so stay tuned and watch for chapter 2. Which you guys will decide when I post or I'll just post in a week if I don't hear back from you guys. So go ahead and tell me when you want chapter 2 via review or PM, majority rules so cast your vote!_

 _~Jake Miller_


	2. Head On Collision

_A/N: Here's chapter 2! This is slightly shorter chapter for you. Make sure you read the closing A/N there's a question down there so please read it, I want you guys opinion on a future story. So check that out after… or before reading the chapter and let me know what you think via review or PM  
P.s. I don't care if you're a member or not, if you're reading this story I want your opinion so hit me up :D_

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Departing the Millers' house at a breakneck run, still covered in high gloss pink non-latex paint Alvin ran home, hoping he could get it out of his hair before it dried too much or would stain his hair. Bursting through his front the chipmunk ran straight up the stairs and to the bathroom slamming the door behind himself, "I hate her!" the chipmunk said to himself hopping into the shower without taking off any of his clothes. He had been muttering that phrase the entire run home but was cementing it in his brain by declaring it out loud.

Having heard the flutter of commotion of his brother entering, but having failed to see his brother actually come into the house Simon headed up the stairs following the pink foot prints that he somehow knew were left by his brother's shoes, curious thoughts a flutter in his mind about what could have happened.

Following the fading pink prints down the hall the bespectacled chipmunk came to a stop in front of the bathroom door. "Alvin?" Simon asked knocking lightly on the door before entering.

"I told you this would happen, Simon" Alvin vented from within shower as he peeled off his wet clothing, knowing Simon was not in the room with him.

"Not quite what you said would happen… but sure" Simon replied leaning against the wall, "besides I thought this is what you wanted… now you can extract your revenge that you've been plotting".

Suddenly Alvin's hand shot out from around the corner of the wall, knowing what he wanted Simon quickly handed him one of the towels that were hanging on the towel rack next to him. Pulling the towel back in Alvin replied to his brother's statement, "I did… but I was ready to forgive and forget, let this whole thing go because you convinced me that it was the right thing to do".

Simon thought about this for a moment before addressing it, "she would have been the one to forgive and forget… you were apologizing" the blue clad chipmunk corrected.

Ignoring the first part of his statement because he just did not care Alvin nodded his agreement to the second part, "yea, but not anymore… I never want to see her ever again, I hate her" Alvin practically shouted from within the shower.

"Those are some pretty harsh words Alvin, what did she do to you exactly?" Simon asked

"I went over there just like you said to, I apologized then when I walked through her door a bucket of pink paint dropped on me… I apologized and this is what I get for it" Alvin replied hotly tossing his soaking wet but now cleaner clothes on the floor before stepping out himself, a towel wrapped around his lower half.

Simon couldn't help but smile at his brother's pink tinged hair, "the pink suits you Alvin" his brother poked jokingly

"ah hahaha ha, Simon" Alvin fired back, "real funny"

Simon laughed lightly, "I thought so, have you learned your lesson though?"

"Yes I have… never be nice to Brittany Miller again, that's the lesson I learned this evening… and I hope she just disappears for good one day, better yet, maybe she can get hit by a truck or get a deadly disease or-" Alvin retorted gaining a smack to the back of his head cutting off his train of thought.

"Never wish something bad will happen to another person, because you might just get you wish" Simon replied sternly "you'd feel terrible if something were to actually happen to her".

Alvin scoffed at this and walked out of the bathroom towards his bedroom to get dressed, still fuming over what had happened to him.

"Brittany cheer up" Eleanor coaxed warmly as the three sisters sat on the couch while Brittany continued to freak out over her mistake.

"How can I cheer up?" Brittany retorted hotly, "Alvin hates me and will most likely never speak to me again all because of a stupid misunderstanding".

"He'll forgive you sooner or later, not even Alvin can hold a grudge that long" Eleanor said softly.

"You don't know Alvin that well then…" Brittany sighed, turning towards Jeanette who also let out a quick sigh more so at her sisters downtrodden attitude than anything else.

The brunette chipette shrugged softly at her sister, "I don't know… he might forgive you, I know even I would find it hard to forgive someone that extracted revenge on me after I apologized to them" Jeanette said.

"But it was an accident though… I didn't know he was coming over to apologize, really, if I knew that, I would never have set that trap up" Brittany replied sadly.

Her bespectacled sister reached over and tenderly began rubbing the back of the auburn haired chipette's shoulder, "what's done is done… now all you can do is hope that he believes it was an accident and forgives you".

Letting out another defeated sigh Brittany shook her head, "I feel so bad about this" she moaned softly.

"Then I would apologize tomorrow morning when we meet the boys to walk to school" Jeanette replied "the longer you let this sit it'll fester like an open soar and eventually become unhealable".

"Why don't I go over tonight, like right now and apologize? Get it over with… show I'm truly sorry for what happened" Brittany suggested, she really did not want to go over there tonight but she did want to resolve this conflict as fast as possible, contrary to popular belief she truly valued her friendship with Alvin even if she did not always show it outwardly.

Jeanette grimaced at this idea as she thought about it, envisioning the possible outcomes, none of them being favorable for Brittany, "give him the night to cool off… it'll be better for both of you that way" the chipette theorized.

"I hope so… I don't know if I could live with myself knowing the reason he won't talk to me is because I did something stupid to betray his trust" Brittany replied brushing a few stray hairs from out in front of her eyes.

Nodding her agreement with her sisters statement Jeanette yawned, "we should talk about this more in the morning… let's get some sleep" Jeanette suggested gaining a nod from both her sisters.

The next morning when Brittany woke up she felt terrible, not only terrible in a guilty sense, but a sick terrible as well. Every joint and muscle in her body ached, she was suffering from an intense pressure headache and her balance as well as her visual perception had deteriorated because of the headache. Trying her best to brush off the feeling that something was seriously wrong with her she headed towards the bathroom in the form of a weak staggering walk.

Emerging from the bathroom after taking a decently long hot shower she felt marginally better but still felt abysmal. Wrapped in her towel she returned to her bedroom and got dressed for the day, picking out her usual casual pink outfit she headed down stairs to get breakfast and finish getting ready for school with her sisters.

Upon seeing the chipette come down the stairs from the kitchen Miss Miller took note of her condition and clearly showed her concern, "are you feeling alright Brittany?" the older woman asked as the chipette sluggishly walked into the kitchen to join the rest of her family for breakfast.

Brittany shook her head in response, "I don't feel too good".

"Oh my… you aren't coming down sick are you?" Miss Miller asked walking over towards the chipette.

"It's probably just a cold" Brittany said skeptically waving off her adoptive mother.

"Maybe you should stay home today" Miss Miller suggested trying to be helpful, "so you can get better".

But the chipette quickly shot down the idea, "no" she replied slowly but strongly, "I need to talk to Alvin today".

Noticing the urgency in her daughter's voice Miss Miller went along with her decision, "well if you're sure" the elderly woman said very unsure herself.

"I'm sure, it's very important I speak to him today about something that happened the other day" the chipette said rubbing the side of her aching head.

Before leaving that morning Brittany made sure to grab a few painkillers that seemed to lessen her throbbing headache for a few hours but as the medicine wore off the headache came back with a crippling vengeance.

All day at school Brittany's condition seemed to come and go in spurts, at times she would start to feel better but then she would get worse. It seemed every time she would peak feeling better, that's when she would suddenly decline and hit an all new low of feeling all around awful, the dismal pit of suffering felt as if it got deeper and worse every time. As the day progressed she kept trying to speak with Alvin but had no luck making contact, between his standoffish attitude and her declining health, getting a chance to talk to him was next to impossible. Towards the end of the day after getting no luck talking to Alvin she approached Simon for assistance in reaching the obstinate chipmunk. "Simon… can I ask a favor of you?" the chipette asked curiously.

Simon slowly turned around from his locker to face Brittany, his face buried in a book, "what can I- " but he stopped himself upon seeing how sick she looked. She hadn't looked well when they walked to school earlier that morning but she looked much worse now "…Brittany, are you feeling ok?" he asked startled by how unhealthy the chipette looked.

"Honestly no… but it's probably just a cold or something, or stress about what happened with Alvin last night" Brittany replied.

"Oh… you mean how you ambushed him after he apologized?" Simon asked curiously as he raised a suspicious eyebrow. Brittany sighed, "I guess it does look like that's what happened, but it was an accident".

"I'm listening" Simon prompted closing his book to give the chipette his full attention for her explanation of her side of the story.

Brittany sighed and glanced past Simon and saw Alvin coming towards them, having already committed to seeking out Simon's help she wanted to avoid a confrontation with Alvin until after she got Simon's advice. Postponing the conversation with Simon seemed like a logical course of action so that's what she did, "can you meet me in the park after school… I need to talk to you about Alvin?" Brittany asked stressing the word 'need'.

Simon wore a puzzled look but nodded his agreement just before Alvin came up beside him and opened his locker completely ignoring the pink clad chipette who was only feet from him, "hey Simon, you want to do something this afternoon?" the red capped chipmunk asked.

Simon cast a glance at Brittany that Alvin didn't notice and said, "sorry Alvin I have other plans…maybe afterwards?".

"Ok" Alvin replied as he walked, "I'll see if Theodore wants to hang out in the meantime".

As Alvin rounded a corner out of earshot Brittany pointed out the obvious for Simon, "did you see that?" she asked him, "he brushed me off as if I wasn't even here"

"And your point?" Simon asked as he began to head for the school doors.

"Simon" Brittany whined following him outside.

"It's Alvin, this is how he deals with things, he separates and isolates a problem and locks it down, deep down, out of the way, ignoring it… it's his protection mechanism to protect him from emotional pain" Simon replied knowingly as he continued to walk away with Brittany following at his heels.

"And that is why I need your help" Brittany said trying to follow him in a straight line but her balance and perception was nearly nothing by this point in the day.

Upon reaching the park which was not all that far from the school and on the way to both their homes Simon found a spot he liked in the grassy area of the park near the sidewalk atop a mellow knoll. Dropping to a sitting position in the grass he beckoned for Brittany to sit across from him. As she practically fell to a sitting position her headache intensified, she let out a deep breath as her head continued to throb. Fighting back the pain she swallowed hard and began to speak, "look Simon…" she began then paused pressing her hand against her forehead to help stop the throbbing, "I didn't know he was coming over to apologize… I thought he came over to… I don't know… do anything but apologize"

Being able to see and sense the pain the chipette was in Simon looked at her curiously, unable to figure out why she was in pain Simon tried to slow her down, "take your time".

This prompted Brittany to take in a long breath, "I didn't know he was coming to apologize…" she repeated softly, "I feel so awful about this…"

Simon nodded slowly, "is that the truth?" he asked somewhat skeptically.

Brittany nodded, "I wouldn't have come to you if it wasn't… you have to help me" she pleaded.

Simon was silent as he thought about this carefully before he nodded his agreement slowly, "I'll help you".

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 _A/N: And there you have it Chapter 2! Things will get more exciting soon, I promise!_

 _THE QUESTION: how do you guys feel about a supernatural themed AATC story? This story would include supernatural style creatures; like angel's, demons, ghosts other mythical and/or fictional beings from the spirit world I may even create a few of my own. So what do you guys think? Would you read a supernatural based story, (the chipmunks and chipettes probably wouldn't have any special abilities… just a group of kids living in a big scary world where the creatures from your nightmares are real). BUT I would not make it a horror story, it would be action/adventure, my usual genres. So hit me up with what you think… I will also take suggestions for creatures/beings/spirits/entities/or anything else of not the physical realm… and if you're suggestion gets used I'll give you a shout out and promote your story in my author's note for that chapter!_

 _Ok long question but give it a shout out, answer part of if, answer all of it either way I'd love to hear from you guys about it!_


	3. Something On My Mind

_A/N: *crickets chirping* that's what I heard after posting chapter 2. Nobody, and I mean nobody said anything… has the AATC community gone away? Where are you guys? Oh well… it's a good thing I don't get discouraged by lack of reviews… you guys are stuck with me and my stories haha._

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 _I hope you guys enjoyed the chapter anyway, here's another one… don't forget to answer the question that is in chapter2's authors note. I'll post it again in a few chapters but yea hit that up and let me know… without further a due, here's chapter 3._

After getting home from school that day Alvin retreated to his bedroom with his younger brother like they usually did after school. Throwing himself down on his bed the chipmunk spotted a baseball on the nightstand next to his bed and snatched it up. Lying on his back he proceeded to toss the baseball into the air and catch it as it fell towards him. As the chipmunk continued this repeated process he let it become muscle memory as he let his brain wander. He was still made about what happened between him and Brittany, not as mad as he was but still angry enough to pretend to be madder and keep up the appearance that he was still furious. He just was not sure what his next course of action should be, continuing to stare past the ball he continued to throw and catch at the ceiling he addressed his brother. "What do you think Theo?" the red capped chipmunk asked his brother who was sitting on his bed attempting to do his homework.

"Think about what?" the small green clad chipmunk asked taking a few moments away from the task at hand.

"Do you think I should get back at Brittany for what she did to me or do you think I should just continue giving her the cold shoulder?" Alvin asked giving both options deep thought as if it were a life of death decision.

Theodore didn't have to think for very long before coming up with an answer and it was neither of the two options his brother had presented him with, "why don't you just forgive her?"

"Forgive her?" Alvin asked back in slight annoyance, his anger was lessening but not enough for him to consider the absurd idea of forgiveness, "I went over there and apologized only to get ambushed when I left… forgiveness is out of the question".

"But isn't revenge bad?" Theodore asked

"Usually" Alvin replied, "but not in extreme cases like this".

Theodore looked at Alvin with a puzzled contemplative expression as he thought about this, coming to a conclusion rather quickly he shook his head, "Dave told us to never seek revenge on anyone, because it's wrong".

Alvin shook his head also, at his brothers forgiving demeanor, deciding he would not be able to get any help from his youngest brother he decided to change the subject, "where's Simon?" he asked ignoring his brother's statement.

"He mentioned something about going to the park right before we left school… he said he'd be home later" the small chipmunk replied helpfully.

"Thanks Theo" Alvin said hopping off his bed and heading for the door in search of his other brother.

Alvin slowly strode down the sidewalk towards the park; generally he would have enjoyed the warm sunny day but right now his brain was a flutter with so many different thoughts and feelings, distracting him from the sights. His mind was buzzing with all the ideas about how he should handle his situation with Brittany. Should he try to get back at her? Should he just continue ignoring and hating her? Or should he… forgive her? Although he did not want to admit it to himself he was starting to sway towards forgiveness. He honestly missed her friendship and wanted it back… sort of. At the same time however he had his appearance to think about, times like this, his pride and ego usually found themselves right in his way to the right decision steering him clear of what he should do.

Catching a glimpse of two figures he recognized Alvin's eyes tore him from his thoughts, breaking his concentration. As he passed a part of the park that bordered the sidewalk he slowed his walk as he spotted Simon and Brittany together. Three days ago he would not have cared if they were hanging out together but after Brittany's ambush this was unacceptable, in Alvin's eyes anyway. His brother was conspiring with the enemy, his enemy, _'he probably set me up'_ , the chipmunk thought as his anger slowly began simmering as he continued to watch the duo plot against him, at least that's what he thought they were doing.

He watched as Brittany and Simon sat in the grass talking to one another. They were too far off for Alvin to hear what they were saying but he watched with an air of gathering anger, Simon stood up first and as Brittany stood up it looked like to Alvin that they were holding hands.

"Thank you Simon" Brittany said with a smile just before he began to stand up, "I don't know what I'd do without you".

"Don't thank me yet… I'll talk to Alvin but I can't guarantee anything" Simon replied

The chipette tried to follow his lead and stand up but her headache brought on a dizzy spell strong enough to make her lose her remaining balance as she tried standing causing her to falter. Simon quickly extended his hands and grabbed hers; gently pulling her to a stable standing position he looked at her questioningly, "are you alright?"

Brittany nodded slightly in response to his question, "hopefully you'll be able to figure out a way to sway his mind" Brittany said giving Simon a friendly hug.

After watching Brittany hug Simon Alvin's blood boiled hotter than ever and he had no idea why, _'that hug was very friendly… maybe a little too friendly…'_ the chipmunk thought his irritation reaching a peak. _'Maybe they like each other… a little more than friends?'_ the chipmunk thought, but this thought not only brought on more anger but also a bit of hurt as well. _'Phh… I don't care who they like… it's not my concern… I have no reason to care'_ Alvin thought as his enraged emotion slowly mixing with hurt and disappointment for some unknown reason.

The longer he watched the more the anger slowly morphed into a desolate feeling of sadness; _'she was my girl...my friend'_ he thought as the red hot anger cooled to a gloomy blue but he stopped himself, _'not my girl, she ain't even my friend… I hate Brittany… who cares if Simon likes her…'_

Slowly the sadness he felt started to melt away due to the rising heat from his new found anger not only for Brittany but now for Simon as well. As Alvin walked away from the park he continued to think about what he had just seen and what his initial plan should be to deal with his new situation. _'I guess she never really was my girl… I wish she was… sorta, but she hates me and I kinda hate her… a little…a lot, I hate her a lot'_ the chipmunk thought, _'maybe she hates me because she knows I like her but she likes Simon?... but you don't like her?'_

All these confusing feelings made his head hurt, pressing his palm against his forehead brought him little relief as the emotions continued to swirl and fly about his brain, tormenting him. Alvin continued to think about this some more as he walked away from the park heading back home, but the more he thought about it the more it confused him and the more it hurt. "I've got to do something" he said softly to himself, "but what do I do?"

These thoughts brought him into a never ending loop of wanting to do something about it, about his emotions, but having no idea what to do he flopped back to not caring which eventually brought him back full circle to wanting to do something about it. After completing several circuits of his circular dilemma he stopped running the loop and stepped outside the ring for a moment long enough to come up with the best idea he had thus far. "I'll get Jeanette to help me… she's good with stuff like this" he declared proudly. With this new plan in mind he set out for the chipettes' house.

Stopping a little ways down the street he waited and watched from a distance as Brittany came from a different direction from the park after her meeting with Simon. Alvin waited long enough to watch Brittany walk up onto the porch and into the house, just observing her from a distance was enough to make his blood boil about the situation. Trying to shake off the feeling of hatred he made his way down the street and up the stairs of the large Victorian house. Finding Jeanette on the porch like he thought he would he stopped before her, "Jeanette I need your help with something".

Jeanette had become accustomed to visits from Alvin seeking advice, so this visit came as no surprise, "have a seat Alvin" the chipette said with a cheerful smile as she gestured to the spot next to her on the porch swing. Taking up her offer of the seat he began to relay every shred of information he had learned that day at the park hoping the chipette could help him.

"Alvin that's ridiculous" Jeanette said after hearing the chipmunks theory, Alvin growled lowly in discontent, "it's true, I seen them together in the park".

"You 'saw' them Alvin, not seen" Jeanette replied in slight annoyance as she pinched the bridge of her nose and rubbed her eyes with her thumb and index finger, "and Simon isn't anything near Brittany's type".

"Jeanette… just think about this a moment, Brittany and Simon go off to meet secretly in the park alone, how many people do you know that are just friends do things like that?" Alvin replied.

"Uh…" Jeanette said somewhat nervously, "we talk in private all the time, your backyard, the park, my backyard, my porch right now… are you trying to say something about our relationship?".

Alvin wore an almost disgusted look, "ew… no. I come to you for advice on matters I get confused about every once in a while" Alvin retorted.

"And maybe Brittany's just going to Simon for advice about something" Jeanette said in return.

"I know there's more going on than Dr. Simon giving Miss Brittany advice" Alvin replied sharply as he turned to leave.

Jeanette sighed and shook her head as she watched Alvin practically leap down the steps of the Millers' porch before he stormed off angrily towards his house.

Arriving back at home Alvin found that Simon had returned in his absence, "hey Alvin…Theodore said you were looking for me" Simon greeted as his brother walked through the front door. Alvin only scoffed at his brother's statement and continued walking up the stairs completely blowing off his brother.

Having heard what could barely be described as a conversation between the two brothers Dave slowly emerged from the kitchen said, "I wonder what's bothering him?"

"I think he's still upset about what Brittany did to him the other night" Simon replied rubbing his chin thoughtfully.

The dark haired man nodded as he let out a soft sigh, "he's got to learn to let go of his grudges… life's too short to go through it hating the people you have to go through life with" Dave said leaning against the kitchen doorframe letting his eyes wander towards the top of the stairs where his eldest son had stormed off to.

Moving closer to his father Simon placed his back against the wall for support and looked up at his father prompting him to continue.

"For the most part we can control who we let in and out of our lives as we grow but some people will stay regardless of how we feel because they know we need them even if we don't" Dave said enlightening his son on the ins and outs of life.

Simon let his father's words rest on his brain for a moment before he continued, "I feel like Alvin would rather live his life alone… or so he thinks".

Dave continued to lightly nod but tossed in an unsure shrug, "when it comes to living your life there's a few people that you'll never be able to get away from for very long, in Alvin's case they're his family and Brittany".

Simon looked at Dave with a questioning look prompting the man on, "Brittany and Alvin have a very special kind of friendship. She's just the type of friend he needs to keep him on his toes and on the right track in life… let's face it we tell him something's wrong or not good for him and he ignores us for the most part, but Brittany has a 'friendly' way of beating sense into him".

"I still don't understand" Simon said somewhat confused by his father's words.

"For example the ink he dumped on Brittany, we tell him that it was wrong, I ground him and he learns nothing, he would be to playing pranks on us before we knew it, but Brittany dumps a bucket of paint on him and he hasn't played a prank on any one since" Dave replied.

"I see what you're saying… Brittany exerts a sort of tough love on Alvin which keeps him in line and manageable" Simon said thoughtfully, "it's a shame Alvin had to pay for that lesson with their friendship".

Dave shrugged at this, "nah… he'll come around eventually, it might take some time but they'll be fine" Dave said with a smile as he ruffled his sons hair.

"I hope so for not only Brittany's sake but Alvin's as well" Simon replied with a chuckle as he looked up at his father with a big smile.

Dave smiled back down at his son then said, "go get your brothers, dinner's ready".

Simon nodded then trotted up the stairs to find Alvin lying on his bed staring at the ceiling as if in a thoughtful daze and Theodore on his bed still reading his book. Simon slowly walked over to him and glanced at his book, "that's a good book… a little slow to start but it picks up later on" the blue chipmunk offered recognizing the title of the book his brother was reading.

Addressing both his brothers Simon delivered the message he was sent to bring "dinners done".

Alvin more or less ignored his brother, and chose to verbally make sure Simon understood he was ignoring him. "Theodore, did our brother say dinner was done?" Alvin asked his younger brother as to not talk to Simon.

Theodore looked at Simon who shrugged so he shrugged as well and said, "yes Alvin… he said dinner was ready".

Alvin then hopped off the bed and headed down stairs to get dinner with his brothers trailing behind him quietly talking about what could be up with Alvin that he was now not speaking with Simon.

Dinner passed mostly without discussion but Alvin continued to give Simon hard death stares from across the table. Simon having had enough of the silent death glares from across the table discretely pointed to his silverware then pointed under the table before knocking his knife onto the floor. "Oh… how clumsy of me, I dropped my knife" he said then slid down under the table to go get it.

As he did Alvin "accidently" dropped his spoon, "I seem to have dropped my spoon" he said then hopped down off his chair and crawled under the table to join his brother under the table.

"What's your problem Alvin?" Simon asked in a very hushed whisper.

"You are!" Alvin retorted sharply in a similar hushed voice.

"Why? What did I do?" Simon asked completely oblivious to what his brother was talking about.

"You know what you're doing…" Alvin retorted before crawling out from under the table with his spoon. Simon rolled his eyes and crawled out with his knife and hopped back up into his chair. Dave gave both boys a curious look but did not press the matter. He knew better to believe they both accidently dropped their eating utensils at the same time but he also knew trying to press the issue may only make it worse so he let it go… for now.

After dinner Alvin made his way towards the stairs but slipped out the front door instead, unnoticed by everyone else he began walking around aimlessly to help clear his mind. As he wandered he slowly came to a stop in front of the Miller's house as if drawn there subconsciously. Alvin paused and thought for a second before walking up to the door and knocking.

As he stood on the porch the door swung open and Eleanor blinked her dark brown eyes a few times in surprise at the chipmunk, "Alvin… what are you doing here?" she asked letting her surprise seep out in her voice as well.

Alvin shrugged somewhat sadly, "I don't know" he said dis-heartedly, he himself did not know why he was there he just needed to talk to somebody, "is Jeanette here?" he finally asked slowly.

"Yeah… I'll get her for you" Eleanor said her voice and face still displaying her surprise, usually Alvin came over to talk to Brittany not Jeanette, but right now it should not really have been too much of a surprise given the current situation.

Eleanor disappeared into the house shutting the door again, "oh that's fine" Alvin muttered under his breath, "I guess I'll wait right here".

Less than a second later Jeanette reopened the door smiling happily, "hey Alvin" she said.

Alvin shifted somewhat uneasily, "Jeanette I have a problem…"

"Alvin, we talked about this…2 hours ago" Jeanette said pausing to check her watch as they walked down the sidewalk.

"You don't understand" Alvin said, "this thing with Simon and Brittany… it's really bothering me and I don't know why".

Jeanette raised a curious eyebrow as they continued to walk away from the Victorian house, "why does it bother you?"

Alvin shrugged and shook his head, "I don't know… it probably shouldn't but it does".

Sighing loudly Jeanette stopped walking and turned to face the chipmunk, "Alvin maybe you should talk this out with Simon… or maybe Brittany".

But Alvin quickly shot down this idea quickly, "no… no good can come from that".

Redirecting themselves Jeanette started walking back towards home, "Alvin, if you won't talk to them you're going to have to figure it out on your own, because I can't help you… listen to your heart, what does it tell you? When you hear it speak follow what it says"

Alvin nodded again, he didn't like the answers he was getting they were far from a simple solution but they were what they were and he had to make the best of them. Coming to a stop from their walk in front of Jeanette's house Alvin decided to take his leave. "Thanks… I guess" the chipmunk said somewhat sadly then slowly began to walk away from the chipette towards home dragging his feet in a defeated manner.

"Poor Alvin" Jeanette whispered to herself as she watched the defeated and depressed chipmunk slink away, "they're hurting each other so much and they don't even know it"

Alvin arrived home and headed up to his bedroom to find Simon waiting for him at the door, "Alvin I think we need to talk". Alvin scoffed, "that's great… talk to the wall because I don't want to talk to you".

Simon raised an eyebrow but shook his head and left the room leaving Alvin in the room by himself to be alone. Alvin watched his brother leave with a cold stare before flopping down on his bed, letting his hard exterior loosen for a moment he let out an emotionally agonizing sigh. Lost in a world of emotions that he did not understand the chipmunk tried to quiet his brain and listen to his heart like he was advised but he heard nothing helpful, _'why can't you just talk to me! Tell me what to do!'_ he mentally screamed at his heart but got no response. He was truly alone with no help, no support, just him and his broken feelings and confused state of being.

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 _A/N: and the turmoil thickens! Hope you guys enjoyed this chapter I'll post the next one when I get a chance! I know this chapter wasn't as good but it'll get better I promise. Don't forget to hit up that question in the last chapter! Good talk, Jake out._


	4. Someone Else

_A/N: Here we go again! Here's chapter 4. I decided to try something new with this chapter, I'm trying a new form of conflict, character against himself. As opposed to the usual character against character, or character against nature. So let me know how you guys like it because there's a lot more of it in the next chapter and more later on in the story so tell me what you guys like. Enjoy, review and be happy!_

 _BTW if the chapter title doesn't seem to have much to do with the content it's because it is the title of a song, which if you listen to the song it'll actually somewhat correspond to the content… at least for me it does. All the titles are songs from the band "Hawk Nelson" this stories biggest inspiration. Just as an FYI in case anybody cared._

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The next morning Jeanette woke up first before her sisters just like every day, she hated being late for anything especially school. Getting dressed she went down stairs to get some breakfast before completing her before rituals to get ready. As she ate breakfast Eleanor came skipping happily down the stairs to join her sister for the meal she was partaking in. After eating and getting ready for school with Eleanor, Jeanette came to realize that Brittany had not gotten up yet. Heading back up the stairs Jeanette entered the bedroom to find her sister still sound asleep, letting out a sigh Jeanette approached her sister's bed and began to try and wake her up, "Brittany, it's time to wake up… we've got to go to school" Jeanette said shaking her sister by her shoulder.

The auburn haired chipette moaned softly in pain as she awoke from her slumber, "my head" she groaned.

"Another headache?" Eleanor asked

Brittany who was still laying on her side facing away from her sisters nodded her head slowly to prevent any sudden movements that would surely not help her throbbing headache. "Maybe you should go to the doctor… you've had so many recently" Jeanette suggested softly, causing her sister to roll onto her stomach and plant her face into her pillow.

"They're probably just from stress" the chipette replied her voice very fatigued and muffled by the pillow.

"Still… children our age aren't prone to headaches… especially ones as bad as the one's you've been having" Jeanette said her voice displaying her knowledge as well as her concern for her sister's well being.

"Maybe you should stay home today?" Eleanor suggested

But Brittany shook her head again still refusing to raise her face from the pillow, "I need to talk to Alvin".

"You mean like last time when he blew you off as if you didn't exist?" Jeanette asked she knew from speaking with Alvin that he would eventually come around; it was the waiting that was the hard part. The brunette chipette knew he had good reason to be angry with Brittany but she would still rather see the two of them get together and talk it out to put it behind them.

Mustering up some strength Brittany slowly slid her arm underneath herself to use it to prop herself up. As she did this she lifted her head to face her sisters, both chipette's gasped at the sight that they both beheld, "Brittany!..." Jeanette exclaimed upon seeing her sister's face.

Brittany's face was flushed of all color and was sickly pale. "What?" Brittany asked weakly trying to hide how terrible she felt as she pushed herself to a complete sitting position with her legs folded.

"You're so pale… are you sure you don't want to stay home from school today?" Eleanor said feeling her sister's forehead, checking for a fever.

Jeanette was thoughtful, "what symptoms do you have?" she asked curiously

Brittany breathed heavily, "fatigue, head-achy, dizziness… apparently paleness"

"You can add slight fever to the list" Eleanor said pulling her hand back from the chipette's forehead.

"I really don't think you should go to school today" Jeanette said restating what she had said earlier.

But Brittany shook her head defiantly, "I have to talk to Alvin today… make him understand that what happened the other day was a misunderstanding" Brittany replied sliding her legs off the edge of the bed and weakly standing up holding the side of her pounding head with one hand as she used the other hand to steady herself with Jeanette's shoulder.

"I'll talk to Alvin and have him stop by after school" Jeanette said hopping Brittany would go for it.

Shaking her head at this Brittany began to unsteadily walk away from her sisters, "no… Alvin will think I'm setting him up again and won't come, I have to spring this on him when he's not expecting it so he won't be afraid of retaliation again" Brittany said slowly walking across the room to get changed.

Jeanette tossed a short glance at Eleanor who sighed and shrugged, "we'll be downstairs" Jeanette said sighing as well in a somewhat defeated manner.

Less than an hour later, Brittany slowly walked down the stairs almost falling twice. "Are you sure you're alright?" Jeanette asked gaining a groan from her older sister but she quickly followed up with "I'm fine".

"She doesn't look as pale" Eleanor commented.

Jeanette looked closely at her sister's face and said, "that's because she's wearing 2 inches of makeup" the tall chipette replied as they embarked on their way to school.

"Look" Brittany said stopping and facing her sisters as they reached the porch, "I'm fine… I probably just have a cold or something, I got a headache because I've been pretty stressed out lately, big deal, … stop worrying all the time".

Jeanette shook her head, "if you have to tell us that you're alright than you probably are not".

Brittany rolled her eyes and continued trying to walk forward, a block or so further down and they met up with the chipmunks.

When the girls reached the intersection the tension that was already there between Alvin and Simon was so thick it could have been cut with a knife. Put on top of that was the tension between Brittany and Alvin, with the tensions running so high there was very little chatter the entire way to school. Just like the other day though every time Brittany would move towards Alvin, he would move away to avoid a confrontation with her. Finally Brittany gave up and stayed where she was, next to Simon. They arrived at the school and headed straight for their first class. As Brittany sat down and glanced to her left to see Alvin staring ahead with a very thoughtful expression on his face she sighed quietly, _'this is going to be a long day'_.

For the remainder of the day Alvin made it a point to avoid Brittany at all costs, he was not ready to face her. His avoidance was not even out of discontent anymore it was pure confusion, he did not know what to think so he just shut it all out and kept everything and everybody at a comfortable distance. As the chipmunks and the chipettes made their way out of their second class Brittany saw Alvin just down the hall and figured this would be a good time to talk with him. Hurrying into the crowd of students she managed to push her way through until she started getting close to the chipmunk she was searching for.

"Alvin… I need to talk to you" Brittany stated still trying to follow the moving chipmunk, having not heard her due to the weakened state of her voice Alvin continued to push through the crowd until he was out of it. Not realizing he hadn't heard him Brittany was under the impression he had ignored her calling out to him so she pressed on trying not to lose him in the moving body of students. Upon exiting the crowd Alvin stole a quick glance behind himself to make sure Brittany wasn't following him, taking a slight detour to their next class, Alvin figured this was the best way to lose her… he would deal with the problem later. When Brittany emerged from the crowd Alvin was indeed gone and she had no idea which way he went all she knew was where he was going. With that in mind the chipette departed for her next class, when she arrived, the teacher was there and there were some students in the room but Alvin was not one of them.

Sighing softly she walked in and took her seat just before her sisters, Simon and Theodore walked in but no Alvin. A few more minutes passed and just as the bell rang Alvin stepped through the door and walked over and took his seat which was next to Brittany.

"Alvin… just in time" the teacher said with a somewhat disconcerted look.

The red clad chipmunk looked up at the teacher smugly, "wouldn't want to be early" he said putting on his best smile.

The teacher shook his head then began his science lesson about outer space that Alvin found incredibly boring but at the same time somewhat fascinating.

Throughout class Brittany barely paid attention she was too busy starring at Alvin through the corner of her eye as to not make it obvious, trying to think of a way to make him listen to what she had to say. While Alvin appeared to be paying attention he sat there constantly shifting his eyes towards Brittany without directly looking at her.

' _How do I make him listen?'_ Brittany asked herself, _'I'm sure once I talk to him and apologize he'll understand and forgive me… he has too, I don't know how much longer I can stand living like this'._

Alvin sighed softly as to hide if from everybody else, _'maybe I should just forgive her… no, I should wait until she apologizes, then I'll forgive her…I should let her apologize…I just need to work through a few things first'_ , Alvin thought to himself, _'why does she have to be so stubborn…'_

Brittany sighed and glanced at Alvin again, _'why does he have to be so stubborn…'_

Sighing almost simultaneously they both thought the same thing, _'but that's why I like him/her…'_

After the class ended the chipmunks went to lunch, once again to Brittany's dismay Alvin grabbed his lunch and disappeared from the group. Letting out a very saddened breath she walked over and sat down with the others. "Where's Alvin?" Theodore asked glancing around the room.

"I don't know… he grabbed his lunch and took off" Brittany said obviously saddened by this, "all I want to do is apologize and he's ignoring me".

Simon nodded sadly, "he'll come to his senses sooner or later".

"Yeah and in the mean time I have to live in misery because he won't listen to me long enough to say two words, 'I'm sorry' that's all I want to say then I know he'll come back around and realize it was an accident" Brittany said pushing a few carrots around on her tray with her fork.

Alvin watched the scene unfold from the top of a stair case in the far corner of the cafeteria, from where he was he could see clearly what was going on but he couldn't hear what was being said.

Trying to contain her haywire emotions she lowered her head to the table and sighed loudly, Simon slowly reached out and gently patted her hand with his in a comforting gesture, "it'll be alright Brittany, I think he knows it wasn't done on purpose, it's only a matter of time before he forgives you and forgets about this little silent fight".

Brittany shook her head slowly as she looked up into his eyes, "or it won't be long until he forgets about me and moves on" she said continuing to look into his eyes as if searching for an answer that wasn't there.

Alvin watched from his spot and watched as Simon appeared to hold her hand then watched how she looked up into his eyes, as he watched this, his anger burned and he could feel it slowly turning into hatred. "If he wants her he can have her… I don't care" Alvin muttered to himself turning away from the scene.

As he sat there trying to ignore his thoughts he felt a small tingling feeling from deep within him. _'Stop pretending like you don't care, you know you care!'_ a voice shouted at him from within him. _'No I don't…'_ Alvin countered mentally without thinking about what the voice was.

' _Don't be naive… you need each other'_ the voice continued to explain. Alvin shook his head, _'she doesn't care anymore… our friendship is dead, it's time to move on'_.

' _An hour ago in class you ready to forgive her, what happened to that?'_ the mysterious voice questioned

Not wanting to admit to himself that he was right the chipmunk just sat there keeping a mental silence, _'don't kid yourself'_ the voice fired back, _'you need her as much as she needs you… neither of you know life without each other'_.

' _We fight all the time… I'm sure I can live without that'_ Alvin replied crossing his arms in defiance.

' _Do you fight with her…or do you flirt with her?'_ the voice asked almost tauntingly

' _This discussion is over'_ Alvin declared said standing up.

' _This discussion Alvin will never be over… this "discussion" as you put it is your life'_ the voice said as it slowly faded away.

' _Wait'_ Alvin said frantically, _'what do you mean?'_ But there was no response, the small voice was gone.

Trying to figure out what the voice had meant the chipmunk sank back down to a sitting position, he sat there quietly pondering over what the voice from within had said to him, until the bell rang ending lunch. Getting up he began to walk to his next class, getting there before the others he settled down at his desk still thinking about what the voice, which he believed was the voice of his heart had told him not that long ago. A few moments later more students came in with the other chipmunks and chipettes, quickly followed by the bell jarring him from his thoughts.

Coming to a conclusion he realized he must be quasi insane, _'great… I'm probably just talking to myself because I'm going crazy'_.

This class period for Brittany was like all the others, slow, tedious and boring. As the chipette listened to the teacher drone on and on she kept glancing at Alvin hoping he would forgive her for the mistake she had made or even just let her apologize for her mistake. The chipette was so zoned out that she had completely missed half the class, "Brittany" a voice called out snapping her back to reality.

The chipette looked around to find the room around her mostly empty of the students, "are you coming?" Eleanor asked from the doorway. Brittany glanced around still feeling a bit spacey but nodded and slid off her chair, as her feet touched the floor she felt dizzy and almost fell over but caught herself on the desk.

"Are you alright?" Jeanette asked hurrying the few feet over to her sister. "I'm fine, it was just a dizzy spell" Brittany said trying to reassure her sister.

"It wouldn't be that big of a deal Brittany if that was the only problem you've had today" Jeanette explained, "you've been head-achy, pale, fatigued and now dizzy…you shouldn't have come to school today".

Nodding slowly Brittany finally started to cave in as they departed the classroom, "you guys were right, I probably should have stayed home today"

"Maybe you should go see the doctor, you've been getting those headaches for nearly three months now, and most people don't contract such symptoms as paleness with the common head cold" Jeanette informed her sister hoping that since she seemed to be in a more agreeable mood that she would take her advice but the mood passed quickly when Jeanette mentioned the doctor.

"Look Jeanette… I'm fine, I might be coming down sick, I've been stressed out recently, I haven't been sleeping a lot because of it… that's probably all, in a few days I'll be back to my normal self" Brittany said trying to sound a cheerful as she could, after all she could understand her sisters concern for her well being.

On the way home that day Alvin made it a very strict point to stay in front of the group and away from Brittany and Simon. Once at home he quickly ran up to his room and flopped down on his bed, for several minutes he laid there thoughtfully contemplating what he should do next, until Simon came in. Alvin who wanted nothing to do with his brother at this current moment in time rolled his eyes "oh it's you" the chipmunk mumbled as he pushed himself off his bed and began heading for the door to get away from his younger brother.

As he brushed past him, Simon grabbed his arm and quickly spun him around so they were facing each other, "what's been up with you lately Alvin?"

Alvin snorted as he jerked his arm from his brother's grasp making Simon think, "you think I set you up to go over to Brittany's so she could dump that paint on you, don't you?" the blue clad chipmunk asked believing he had figured it out or at least most of it.

After Simon mentioned this, Alvin's brain made a connection or at least he thought his brain had made a connection. _'That would explain why he was so adamant that I go over that night… Simon was in league with Brittany the whole time… I should have known it'_ Alvin thought to himself. Alvin remained silent for a moment as he pondered this then said, "actually I do now, now that you mention it".

"Seriously? Do you believe everybody is in a conspiracy against you?" Simon asked mentally kicking himself as he realized he had only just given him the idea now.

Alvin shook his head, "no…only you and Brittany" he said before walking away from his brother and out the bedroom door. Simon stood motionless for a while as he thought this through, _'he thinks I set him up, I should try to make this right, but how?'_

Brittany sluggishly walked up her porch stairs a few steps behind her sisters, letting out a long deep breath as she reached the top she slowly walked inside following her sisters. "I'm pretty tired… I think I'm going to go take a nap" Brittany announced her voice sounding very fatigued for only being 3 in the afternoon.

Jeanette and Eleanor only nodded in acknowledgement as Brittany walked up the stairs towards her room, "I really hope she's alright" Eleanor said to Jeanette after their older sister was out of earshot.

"I don't think she is, whatever is wrong with her it's more than stress and it's definitely more than just a head cold as well" Jeanette informed her sister. "What do you think it could be?" Eleanor asked curiously.

"I don't know, her symptoms are very generic it could be just about anything" Jeanette replied honestly, "I'm going to pay closer attention to her to see if I can figure it out, since she won't go to the doctors".

Upstairs Brittany slunk down the hallway and practically fell through the doorway to her room, keeping up the act of being fine was taking a toll on her more than she had imagined it would. Dragging her exhausted body across the floor she stopped in front of her vanity mirror and steadied herself on the dresser to prevent her from falling over. Sighing loudly she used a clean cloth to wipe the makeup from her face. Cringing at how terrible she looked, the chipette began to realize that maybe this would not just pass like she had previously thought but tried to shake the feeling off, _'I'm fine… I've got to be'_ she thought trying to convince herself. After all her headache had gone away, at least for now, she felt marginally better, minus the overwhelming fatigue she felt. Turning around she used the dresser to propel her forward towards her bed, _'a nap is what I need… I'll feel better when I wake up'_.

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 _A/N: So how'd you guys like Alvin against himself it's a new character conflict type I figured I would try so let me know what you think. Is he going crazy or is there something bigger afoot? We'll see! Keep reading and review!_


	5. Words We Speak

_A/N: I'll get right to it today, here's chapter 5 please enjoy, read and review! Good talk._

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After Alvin had left his room, he retreated to the living room where he threw himself down onto the couch, laying on his back he sprawled out his arms and legs. Finally finding his comfortable position his brain started to flutter with ideas of how to deal with the problem he was having with Brittany. _'You know what you have to do'_ the little but strong and driving voice from deep within him said suddenly.

"Oh gosh… you again" Alvin muttered practically out loud as he dropped his hand onto his forehead.

' _Have you ignored everything I told you?'_ the voice asked

' _Basically… minus a few things that I liked'_ Alvin retorted internally _'look I don't know if I've made this clear enough before but I really just want you to go away and let me live my life in peace'._

' _You're the one who doesn't understand Alvin… I'm what brings peace to your life, I guide your heart, your consciences, your soul… without me guiding you, you wouldn't know if you made the right decision and you would never be at peace with yourself'_ the voice from within replied, _'I am the voice of your guard-'_

But Alvin mentally cut off the voice before it could finish, _'I'll take that as a no then'_ the chipmunk thought as he sighed out loud.

' _I don't think you're understanding me, Alvin'_ the voice said _'I don't think you can at your age many grownups still cannot understand me as I am… I am a very confusing and complex entity that some do not even believe in'_

' _Try me'_ Alvin said closing his eyes just hoping to himself that he was not going insane.

' _I don't believe you could fathom what I would say to you'_ the voice replied

' _Are you going to hit me with your best shot or not?'_ Alvin asked somewhat impatiently and annoyed, he hated being treated as if he wouldn't understand a concept, even if he knew he couldn't he still wanted to try.

' _I'll try to word this so you can understand'_ the voice said, _'I am the voice of reason, of understanding, your protection, assigned to you at your birth'._

After a short pause Alvin said, _'please continue… this was just getting interesting'_

' _I am the driving force that keeps you on the righteous path'_ the voice said softening it's 'tone'.

Alvin was silent mostly thinking about this, as he remained silent the voice continued, _'I make you care about others when you would rather not. That feeling you get when you know what the right course of action is but you would rather not but you end up doing what is right anyway… that's me. When you let me, I help guide you towards the more rational choice when given an option'._

Alvin was silent once more but this time he broke the silence, _'and I'm sure somehow you help make me smarter too right?'_

' _Actually yes Alvin… I am teaching you something right now that in your own right you already knew; you just needed me to unlock the box. Opening the box will enlighten your mind to my existence, I also help calm your mind when requested so you can think more clearly'_ the voice said tenderly, _'you actually are a very smart and wise being… you just burry it deep down so no one else can see it'._

' _Why am I having such a hard time believing you? I mean I know I'm smart and stuff but why does all this other stuff sound…fake?'_ Alvin asked curiously.

' _Because Alvin… you are in denial, like I said many people even grownups do not believe in my existence, you do not wish to believe what I am saying so you are trying to shut it out, for the past several days you've been trying to convince yourself that you do not really care about Brittany and it's all imaginary'_ , the voice explained.

' _It is imaginary… I don't care about Brittany… we fight all the time'_ Alvin argued back,

' _No Alvin… you flirt with her, think about it a moment, she may appear mad like you do but inside just like you, she's enjoying every second'_ the voice replied

' _You tried to push this on me before and I still don't believe it'_ Alvin retorted.

' _You are so blind Alvin… think back upon this memory!'_ the voice ordered just before a certain memory flooded into his brain.

 _Flashback:_

 _It was just a few days after the chipettes started going to school with the chipmunks and Alvin was walking down a hallway alone because he had gotten distracted and was now late for math class… again._

 _As he lethargically walked down the hall because he really didn't want to go to math class he heard a noise, a voice, a high pitched voice saying something. "Give it back!" the voice shouted._

 _Alvin slowly turned around and walked back a few feet to glance down a hallway where a larger boy was standing in front of a short pink clad, auburn haired chipette. The boy was dangling the chipette's yellow scarf just out of her reach and was laughing at the fact that the chipette who was a decent amount shorter couldn't reach it._

 _Alvin who was watching quickly grew annoyed as he walked closer he never really liked Nathan, the boy had gained a reputation as being the school bully; usually he would end up picking on Theodore but now had found a new target. Striding right up and slipping in between the chipette and the bully the red capped chipmunk put on his best smile, "hey" he said warmly to the chipette completely ignoring the bully who was now just behind him._

" _Hi Alvin" Brittany said somewhat shyly trying to hide the fact that she was engaged in an encounter that would make her seem not as independent as she was._

" _Beat it Seville" the bully growled over the chipmunk's shoulder_

 _Without looking Alvin pivoted his upper body and just started pushing the bully away, "quiet Nathan" the chipmunk ordered._

 _The bigger kid didn't like being told what to do especially by somebody less than half his size, growling loudly he grabbed Alvin by the front of his shirt and slammed him against the lockers causing Alvin to squeak in surprise and Brittany to gasp._

 _As this happened Nathan lowered his guard on Brittany giving her the opportunity to grab her scarf back. Quickly tying the scarf around her neck letting the bow fall on her shoulder she turned her attention back to the chipmunk and the bully. Alvin gave the bully a cocky smirk then said, "wrong choice of words, huh?... how about, please be quiet Nathan?" Alvin asked in a cocky tone of voice still baring his signature smirk._

 _Nathan had just about had it with the chipmunk and gave him a warning punch to the eye, Alvin winced in pain as he was dropped to the hard tile floor beneath him. "Alvin, are you alright?" Brittany asked kneeling down beside him as the bully stalked off leaving the two alone in the hallway._

" _I'm fine" the chipmunk said grinning but his grin quickly faded as he gingerly touched the bruise that was forming._

" _You should go to the nurse" Brittany said moving over to his other side to see his eye better._

" _No" Alvin said "no nurse"_

" _Why not… she'll be able to help it feel better I'm sure…give you some ice or something" Brittany said gently rubbing his arm._

" _I'm sure if you kissed it, it would feel better, more than the nurse could help" Alvin said putting on his best smile._

 _Brittany giggled and blushed lightly as she bit her lower lip, "I guess I owe you at least that much" she said then leaned in and gently kissed his eye. "Thank you Alvin" she said wrapping her arms around his neck…._

 _End Flashback:_

' _You remember that?'_ the voice from within the chipmunk asked

' _Of course I do, that was the first time she ever kissed me, and it was the first time I ever stood up for her in front of anybody'_ Alvin replied.

' _Why did you stand up for her?'_ the voice prompted

' _Because I don't like Nathan'_ Alvin replied,

' _Not quite'_ the voice countered, _'you did it because even back then you had feelings of affection for her; you cared for her enough to take a punch for her'_.

' _I've taken beatings for my brothers before'_ Alvin replied

' _Key phrase being, "for your brothers", Brittany back then was a girl that wasn't a part of your family and you barely knew her, she could hardly be called your friend yet'_ the voice replied.

' _Why is it the more I talk to you the more you remind me of Simon?'_ Alvin asked

' _Because Simon follows the guidance he is given… you would be more like Simon if you listened to me more often'_ the voice replied.

' _Well excuse me for breathing, since I seem to be such a bother all the time and not so much like everybody else'_ Alvin said sarcastically,

' _It actually isn't even necessary for you to breath to live, part of you will live on once your earthly life is over'_ the voice said very knowledgeably.

' _That's a little weird'_ Alvin muttered in his brain trying to wrap his mind around this prospect.

' _Would you like me to explain?'_ the voice asked gently

' _Oh… please do, I want to hear this'_ Alvin said becoming more curious and skeptical by the moment

But no response came to the chipmunk from the voice; it was silent all around him, even within. _'You there?'_ Alvin asked himself but no reply. "He better not make a habit of just disappearing on me like that mid conversation" Alvin muttered out loud.

Interrupting the chipmunks thoughts, came a voice from the kitchen, "boys… dinner's ready" Dave called from the kitchen.

Alvin slipped off the couch and made his way into the kitchen just as his brothers walked down the stairs and turned to enter the kitchen as well.

.

"Brittany" Jeanette called out walking up the stairs, "dinners done".

After getting no response Jeanette walked into their shared bedroom and over to her sister who was covered up and in bed still napping from earlier that afternoon. "Brittany are you awake?" Jeanette asked in a hushed voice as she neared her sister. Getting no response again Jeanette reached down to shake her sister but her hand brushed against the chipette's cheek causing her to retract her hand in surprise. Brittany's pale face glistened with sweat as she slept in what looked like a painfully disturbed sleep.

Slowly reaching down Jeanette pressed her wrist against Brittany's head and gasped as she quickly pulled her hand back. "She's burning up" Jeanette said noting the chipette's worsening fever, thinking fast Jeanette hurried out of the room to get Miss Miller.

"It feels like she's got a very bad fever" Jeanette said as her and Miss Miller reentered the bedroom, after Miss Miller felt the chipette's forehead she made and "awe" sound before turning around to face Jeanette again. "What should we do?" Jeanette asked her mother in a hushed voice.

"We should let her sleep it off for now and check her again in the morning… if she gets any worse I'm going to take her to see the doctor" Miss Miller informed her adopted daughter. Although Jeanette didn't like doing absolutely nothing about Brittany's fever she reluctantly agreed.

' _At least tomorrow is Saturday, she won't have to go to school'_ Jeanette thought, _'she can just sleep off her fever'._

.

.

After having spent Saturday apart with their own families, Sunday left the chipmunks and the chipettes to occupy their own time together. Brittany woke up and moaned in pain as her head throbbed yet again this morning; on any other Sunday the chipette would have stretched and stood up by now excited to start a new day but today she felt to fatigued and weak to even move. After laying there for nearly an hour more she forced herself to sit up, getting up completely she walked over to the mirror and sighed, her face didn't look as pale as the other day but it was still an unhealthily pale. Very slowly Brittany got dressed and headed down stairs to find the house empty besides Miss Miller who was down in the kitchen.

"Good morning Brittany" the elderly woman said noticing the chipette's presence.

"Morning" Brittany said somewhat weakly as she sat down.

"Are you feeling any better today?" Miss Miller asked concern lacing her voice.

Brittany began to nod but quickly started shaking her head. The older woman came over and pressed her wrist to the chipette's forehead, "your fever seems to be gone" Miss Miller said thoughtfully before changing the subject, "would you like some breakfast?" she asked.

Brittany shook her head again, "I'm not really hungry right now".

Miss Miller nodded, "the flu will do that, take away your appetite and all" she said cheerfully before turning back to what she was baking.

Brittany nodded and stood up, "where's Jeanette and Ellie?"

"They went to the park with the boys" Miss Miller replied speaking of the chipmunks.

Brittany nodded and let out a light sigh as she leaned against the table to let a dizzy spell pass. Noticing her adopted daughter falter the elder woman addressed it, "are you alright dear?" she asked, "maybe you should stay in bed today?"

"No" Brittany said shaking her head dismissively, "I'm fine… I just need some fresh air… yea fresh air will help".

Miss Miller was skeptical but nodded and let her leave for the park to join her sisters and friends. Leaving the house, Brittany began to walk in the direction of the park feeling very ill indeed but she pressed on determined to not let whatever was ailing her to get her down. When she arrived at the park she found the others split up doing different activities around the park. Theodore and Eleanor were playing on the swings while Jeanette and Simon seemed intrigued by something that was crawling around in the grass under the large willow tree. Alvin on the other hand was laying on top of a hill at the far end of the park watching the clouds pass in front of the warm early March sun.

Catching sight of her older sister Jeanette tore her gaze from the creepy crawler she was watching and gave Brittany her full attention, "Brittany, I wasn't expecting to see you out of bed today" Jeanette said somewhat surprised.

"I'm not that sick Jeanette" Brittany retorted basically letting herself heavily fall to a cross legged sitting position not far from where her sister was laying on her stomach.

"You don't exactly look like the picture of health" Simon commented taking note of the chipette's condition; he too was lying on his stomach, with his elbows on the ground resting his chin on his palms.

"I still think you should try sleeping this off" Jeanette commented in a helpful tone of voice.

Brittany shook her head, "I'm not that sick" she said again putting emphasis on the words 'not' and 'that'.

"I just don't want you to get any worse… we don't really even know what's wrong with you" Jeanette said gingerly placing a hand on her sister's shoulder as she pushed herself to a sitting position.

"Miss Miller thinks it's the flu" Brittany said, "that's probably all it is".

"I guess it could be a bad case of the flu" Jeanette said thoughtfully.

"It's not serious that's for sure… I'll probably be back to my old self within a few days" Brittany replied trying her hardest to put on a cheerful smile through all the pain she was experiencing.

Alvin remained laying on top of the hill but now instead of watching the clouds he laid on his stomach and elbows resting his face in his hands as he watched Simon, Jeanette and Brittany to see if he could figure out anything more.

The chipmunk continued to watch the others for some time but quickly became impatient; patience was certainly not one of his strong suits. Before long the chipmunk got up and began walking down the hill towards the group. As he neared the trio, Brittany called out to him, "Alvin… can you come here for a second". Ignoring the chipette Alvin continued to walk right past them, he wanted to listen to her, there was a part of him that wanted to forgive her but there were still a few things he needed to work through. With those things unworked through, she was still in a compartmentalized box in his brain and would stay there until he was ready to address the issue.

"Alvin!" she called out again as she tried to stand but as she tried to get to her feet a dizzy spell overtook her and she practically fell back to a sitting position squeezing her eyes shut to help pass the spell faster. Finally opening her eyes after several seconds she turned to lock at her sister and Simon, "why does he do this to me? Does he find hurting me fun?" Brittany asked as her emotions began welling up inside of her.

Jeanette and Simon exchanged troubled glances before turning back to Brittany trying to comfort her.

Theodore who had watched the entire scene come apart felt sorry for his friend, in his eyes Brittany had not done anything to deserve Alvin's wrath. Being his brother Theodore was all too familiar with Alvin's angry side but in the small green chipmunk's mind she did nothing to deserve this treatment. All she wanted to do was apologize for something she had done and Alvin would not let her, and that did not seem right to him. "I'll be right back Ellie" he said hopping off his swing, before he trotted after his brother to catch up.

He followed Alvin out of the park and down the sidewalk quite a ways before catching up with him enough to call out to him, "Alvin… wait" he called out causing his brother to stop and turn around to face him.

"Hey Theo" Alvin greeted somewhat sadly.

Without returning the greeting the small green clad chipmunk threw his first question out there, "why are you treating Brittany this way?"

Alvin thought about this for a second before he answered, he knew he had told him before but recapped what she had done to him when he went over to make amends.

After listening to his story again Theodore looked at him somewhat puzzled, "is that all?" Theodore asked.

Alvin nodded as if it was obvious, "and for something like that you would constantly hurt her feelings?" Theodore asked.

"You don't understand-" Alvin began but was cut off by his youngest brother, "no Alvin… you don't understand"

Alvin looked down at his brother confused and somewhat surprised, it wasn't like Theodore to stand up to Alvin. Theodore saw his brother's surprise and continued, "she dumped some paint on you, show me one scar from that".

Although the chipmunk paused Alvin knew he had more to say so he continued to allow his brother to hold the floor and waited for him to continue. Seeing his brother's nonverbal que to continue speaking Theodore continued on, "what she did to you doesn't even leave a trace, you got most of the paint out that night and the rest the next day, but you're hurting her Alvin… you're scarring her heart… she wants to like you, she wants to be your friend again but you're not letting her… you keep pushing her away, you keep hurting her".

Alvin stared at his younger brother in silence for a good long while letting what he had said sink in. Alvin wasn't sure why but he began to see the situation in a different light, he wasn't sure if it was the fact that Theodore stood up to him about it or if the mere fact that his brother was right. Either way it put his mind into a perspective. It turned out that Theodore was just the person Alvin needed to open up the box he kept his problem with Brittany in so he could finally deal with it instead of hiding from it like he had been doing for the last week. As he thought about this a small smile crept onto his face as he looked down at his brother, "thank you Theo" he said lovingly as he pulled his brother into a brotherly embrace.

"Oh…" Theodore mumbled accepting the hug, "you're welcome… I guess"

Once they broke apart Theodore asked the most important question, "are you going to talk to her now, and let her apologize?"

Alvin nodded, "I'll listen to what she has to say… but I may need some time to think first before I do"

Theodore seemed to be happy with that answer, "ok" he said with a happy smile on his face. Alvin then sent him on his way back to the park while he himself headed towards home; he wanted some time to think about what Theodore had said before he approached the chipette, or more so before he allowed her to approach him.

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 _A/N: There you go, there's more internal struggle for Alvin in this chapter, love it, hate it let me know. You guy's feedback shapes my future writings so keep the punches rolling and hit me up with your opinion. BTW the random periods in the gaps are just place holders because I needed to break apart the text with a space to signify a shift in place or time but it wouldn't allow an empty space you got periods. Have fun!_


	6. We're Alright

_A/N: Chapter 6 is here! Bringing with it a bunch of fun, excitement and adventure! Please enjoy and of course as always please review, I love hearing from you guys, or PM me it's always a pleasure!_

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Monday morning brought anxiety for some and mild joy for others as everyone prepped for school like every Monday. Like every other school day the chipmunks walked to the intersection between theirs' and the chipettes' streets and waited for the chipettes so they could walk to school together. The minutes slowly ticked by and the chipettes never came, checking his watch Simon glanced down the street before coming to realization that they were abnormally late, "we better get going… or we'll be late" Simon said skeptically glancing once more down the chipettes' street before slowly leading his brothers away from the corner towards their destination.

Arriving at school the three chipmunks briskly walked to their first class to prevent themselves from being tardy. As the class passed by Simon became even more worried when the chipette's still did not arrive by the end of the class period. Exiting the class room the boys began heading to their next class, "I hope nothing has happened to them… I hope they're alright" Simon said as they walked down the hallway.

"Nothing happened to us… or at least most of us" Jeanette's voice said from around the corner, having over heard the remark and knowing who her friend was talking about. Rounding the corner Jeanette and Eleanor joined up with the other three and joined them on their walk to their next class.

"Where's Brittany?" Simon asked noticing her absence immediately and noting the 'most of us' comment his friend added to her statement.

"Miss Miller had to take her to the hospital" Eleanor said sadly

"Why?" Theodore asked the one question all three chipmunks wanted an answer to.

"She's gotten a lot worse, and nobody seems to know what's wrong with her" Jeanette replied her worry for her sister showing greatly both on her face and in her voice.

As Jeanette spoke Alvin slowly began to get lost in his own thoughts, deep within his head. Hearing about his friend's worsening condition made everything else melt away none of it seemed important anymore. His anger towards her seemed to fade away in to oblivion; his jealously of her friendship with Simon simply vanished. A small pit in the bottom of his stomach seemed to open up making him feel sick with worry. Although his sickening worry seemed to drag him deeper into his own thoughts, a needing of information jarred him from his thoughts, "what hospital is she in?" Alvin asked quickly rejoining the conversation suddenly.

Eleanor shook her head quickly, "she's not anymore… the doctor sent her home with Miss Miller after her examination and some tests" the short chipette replied.

With nearly zero hesitation Alvin spun around to leave and took no more than one and a half steps before Simon caught him by the back of his collar. "Where do you think you're going?" the taller of the two brothers asked questioningly.

Turning back to face his younger brother, Alvin jerked himself free from his brother's grip , "I need to talk to her about what happened" he said quickly in explanation but Simon stopped him again as he turned to leave yet again.

"Not so fast" the blue clad chipmunk said, "she's at home and will still be there after school lets out today…besides we both know you do not want to hear Dave's lecture about skipping school…again".

Alvin looked at his brother with a very displeased expression but knew he was not going to get far with arguing with him and he knew he was right, so he gave in. "Fine you win" the red capped chipmunk mumbled as he followed the group off to their second class.

On any given day Alvin usually did not pay attention in class, today however was worse; his ability to pay attention was depleted from low to zero. All he could think about was getting the day over with so he could go see his friend and make things right between them. The longer he sat in class the antsier he became, it seemed to the chipmunk that it would never end, as if time had stopped but finally, it was time, the bell rang signaling the end of their second class. Getting up Alvin darted out of the class room and made it to his next class in record time, reaching the door before all the students from the previous class were gone. "This day can't end fast enough" Alvin mumbled to himself as he began to realize that no matter how fast he moved time was a set construct. An hour was 60 minutes, a minute was 60 seconds and a second was… well to Alvin a second was an obscure measurement of time. Sighing loudly he slumped down in his chair waiting for those seconds to turn to minutes so the minutes could turn to hours so he could get out of this torturous activity most called school.

Patients were not a virtue Alvin possessed very strongly; waiting for this particular school day to be over was probably the hardest thing he had ever undertaken. After many more very boring very long and tedious hours though it was finally over, not a second after the final bell rang Alvin was up and running for the front doors of the school. Reaching the doors he burst through them and leapt down the concrete stairs, landing hard he picked himself up and started off at a sprint for his friend's house. He did not know quite why, but he had this intense drive to correct the wrong that was done. Briskly running down the sidewalk he ran clear past their meeting intersection and down the chipette's street.

Trying his best not to lose any of his momentum, as he neared the porch stairs of the chipettes' large Victorian house, he tried his hardest to complete the turn but failed. Due to his increased speed the chipmunk lost his footing trying to round the turn that fast and ended up tumbling into the bushes planted beside the porch.

Suffering no injury from his collision with the Miller's bushes, Alvin climbed out of the bush picking leaves and twigs out of his clothing. More slowly this time the chipmunk climbed the stairs to the porch and tried the door knob, finding it locked and noting that Miss Miller's car was not in the driveway, he put into motion his plan-B. Without pause or hesitation the chipmunk ran back down the stairs and around to the side of the house where he found a large tree, the tree had a branch that extended right to the chipette's bedroom window.

Being a chipmunk he made quick work of his ascent up the trunk of the large tree and his shimmying out onto the branch that brought him right up to the window. Finding the window unlocked, he slid it up and climbed inside, sitting on the sill of the window he paused and listened to the heavy breathing of the chipette who was in bed and apparently sleeping. Being extra careful to be quiet as too not wake up the sleeping chipette the chipmunk slowly and silently slid off the windowsill. Dropping to his feet without making a noise he closed the window then tiptoed up to the bed. Drawing himself to a stop he took a moment to look at her sleeping face that seemed to display an expression of almost pure suffering. As Alvin continued to gaze upon her face he slowly came to realize how sick she truly was, up to this point he had been too angry at her, too wrapped up in his own thoughts to notice her true condition.

Before he could do anything further he heard the front door open and the sound of Miss Miller humming as the older woman entered the house. Exiting the bedroom Alvin went down the stairs to find Miss Miller preparing the medicine for the chipette that she had just brought home.

Upon seeing Alvin enter the kitchen Miss Miller greeted him cheerfully, "hello Alvin". Finding Alvin in her house uninvited was nothing new to Miss Miller she was more than aware of the tree the chipmunks and chipettes used to enter and exit the bedroom and had no problem with them doing so.

"Hello Miss Miller" Alvin said in greeting walking over to where she was standing, "how's Brittany doing? She doesn't look well"

Miss Miller nodded, "she's not doing too well Alvin but I'm sure she'll get better soon" the older woman said with a confident and pleasant smile as she prepared to leave the room to give her adopted daughter the medicine she had brought back from the drug store for her.

Alvin followed the woman up the stairs and back into the chipette's bedroom and watched as Miss Miller gently woke Brittany up to give her the medicine. After the chipette took the medicine Miss Miller left the room to let her continue resting. Alvin who was standing at the foot of the bed now walked around to the side. Upon seeing him, Brittany weakly pushed herself to a sitting position, mostly out of surprise, Alvin was one of the last people she expected to see, "Alvin? What are you doing here?" she asked her voice soft and feeble.

Not sure what the right course of action for the situation he had now placed himself into was he decided to just jump in. "Britt" he said pulling himself up onto the bed to sit on the edge, letting his feet dangle over the side. "I'm sorry for how I've been treating you… I've been a jerk lately and I'm sorry".

Brittany nodded as she adverted her gaze to the right, "I'm sorry too Alvin" she said putting on a thin smile. Neither one of them wanted to be the one to say it but they were very relieved that the tension between them keeping their friendship apart was finally gone leaving nothing but their ever enduring friendship. Putting on a small smile as silence fell between the two chipmunks Alvin said, "I guess that means we can be friends again?"

Brittany nodded as she began laughing lightly which slowly turned into a cough. Alvin quickly chuckled off his own comment knowing that it would take time to rebuild what they had before. Taking note of how deteriorated her health had gotten in the mast week or so he felt like he had to ask, "did they find out what's causing this, at the hospital?" Alvin asked gesturing towards her, meaning her illness.

"They took some x-rays, a blood test and they found…" she began but let her voice trail off slowly before shaking her head, "nothing yet, they gave me medicine to help with all the different symptoms but I still have to go for a bunch of different tests".

Looking at her somewhat skeptically because of how she choose to word her response the chipmunk nodded. The way she choose to word her response, to Alvin made it sound as if she was choosing to omit information, but it was her information to omit so he let it go and did not press the issue, "when do you go for the tests?" he asked instead trying to help keep her positive, hoping it would not be very long, seeing her this sick saddened him.

"Sometime in April, there's a waiting list and the earliest they could get me in was the middle of April" she explained letting her face take on a downcast expression. Alvin took quick note of the negative impact that his question had on her, trying to counter the negativity he said, "at least you're making progress".

"But it's an entire month away, they don't even want me leaving the house" she sighed out sadly, "I just to get better… I don't want to be sick".

The sadness in her voice was so thick Alvin could not only hear it, but feel it, not just in the room around him but as a piercing sensation straight through to his core causing him to feel sorry for his friend who was not only suffering physically but emotionally as well. Alvin was silent in thought for a good long moment until he came up with an idea, nodding slowly in understanding he pitched his idea past her, "tell you what, to help you pass the time, I'll come over every day after school to keep you company".

"Aw" Brittany cooed softly with a very cheerful smile, "that's sweet Alvin… but you don't have to do that, I'll be fine". Although she said she would be fine, on the inside she was screaming and calling out for him to actually come by every day. She was engaged in an internal struggle between not wanting to be a burden for him and fighting the urge for his companionship.

Alvin shrugged as he looked over into her face with a short grin, "you're right I don't have to… but I'm going to anyway"

The chipette's sad heart was suddenly struck with an emotion she hadn't felt in quite some time, happiness. The struggle within her was won; she would have his company without having to feel as if she was placing herself upon him as a burden. Even still she was very depressed about her current illness, with that one sentence however, Alvin was able to bring brightness to her otherwise bleak situation. She finally had her best friend back and this made her smile with uncontainable joy, locking eyes with him as she continued to smile back at him, she feebly took his hands in hers', "and that's what makes you the best friend anyone could ask for" she said as she leaned her head towards his letting her forehead rest against his.

The red capped chipmunk stayed for the better part of the evening but around 8:00 PM a phone call from Dave to Miss Miller had him on his way home. Exchanging farewells with his friend Alvin departed the Miller house and began the walk home. Living just north of Los Angeles California the temperature never seemed to get too cold. Even in the month of March it still remained warm even in the evening hours. Taking his time on the warm March evening the chipmunk strode along in contemplation of the day's events. Although Alvin was never well known for putting a great deal of thought behind his actions he would occasionally find himself in deep contemplative thought on a more of a reflexive basis. As he neared home he began wondering where all this would lead, his re-kindled friendship with Brittany, the chipette's unknown illness and probably most importantly to Alvin was the strange emotions and feelings that were beginning to well up from deep inside of him regarding the auburn haired chipette. Did he just feel sorry for her because she was sick? Did he actually have some sort of affectionate feelings for her? Why were these even thoughts going through his head?

Having delved so deep into his own thoughts, he had unconsciously let his muscle memory take over and before he knew it he was walking up to the front door of this house. Pausing briefly at the door to his house the chipmunk sighed softly before turning the door handle letting the door swing open. Entering the kitchen where he knew Dave would be Alvin pulled himself up onto one of the high stools set at the counter next to were Dave was working with some papers.

"I heard you and Brittany are finally getting along again" Dave said with a brief smile at his son who seemed to be somewhat mentally removed from the conversation that just started.

Having heard Dave say something Alvin seemed to snap out of his trance like state, "huh? Yea, we're doing better"

The man nodded content with his answer, "you should probably head upstairs to get your homework done before bed".

Alvin let out a long groan gaining a look from his adoptive father making him shrug slowly before nodding his agreement, sliding off the stool the chipmunk started walking towards the doorway of the kitchen. Leaving the kitchen the chipmunk went upstairs to find his brothers already working on their homework. Hearing their brother enter the room and flop down on his bed made Simon look up from his book at him, a small content grin on his face, "how's Brittany?"

"She…" Alvin began but stopped himself "I don't know… she looks worse than she did before".

Simon shrugged slowly happy that the tension between him and his older brother was at an all time low, "hopefully it's nothing to serious"

The red clad chipmunk nodded slowly before turning his head to look at his younger brother, "Simon… I'm sorry about the way I treated you, it's just-".

But Simon quickly cut him off, "I forgive you Alvin" he said with a happy smile.

Alvin tried once more to explain but Simon cut him off again, "Alvin… Jeanette explained everything to me after you took off after school today… its fine, I found it quite funny actually".

Alvin gave a snorted chuckle at this as he rolled over onto his stomach and reached for his book bag for his homework assignments. With so much on his mind Alvin found it nearly impossible to concentrate on his homework. Between the mental distractions and the physical distractions of literally everything within arm's reach of the chipmunk it was of great surprise that he managed to get all his homework done before it was time to go to bed. Today everything seemed to be hard for Alvin, even falling asleep, usually Alvin could fall asleep anywhere under any circumstance nearly on demand but tonight he laid awake tossing and turning in his bed, his mind constantly preoccupied causing him to stay awake. Eventually however the chipmunk was slowly overtaken by sleep but before he would know it, he would be waking up to start another day.

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 _A/N: And there you go! Chapter 7 will be up hopefully sometime this week, I've just been extremely busy and haven't had time to post as often as I was hoping I could :/ but either way you guys know what to do! Catch you later chaps._


	7. Not The Same

_A/N: Here's chapter 7 for you guys. I'm sorry this one took so long, I've been really busy recently and haven't had the time to write or post as much as I'd like to. So to make up for the lost time, this chapter is a bit longer than the others so please enjoy and review!_

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The chipmunks' silent bedroom was suddenly filled with the shrill beeping of the alarm clock that sat on the night stand between Alvin's and Simon's beds. The clock went off at the same time as every morning, filling the air with its loud and obnoxious beeping sound specifically designed as such to wake up those who needed to be woken up at particular time. Out of reflex Simon shot his hand out from under his blankets and shut off the alarm before sitting up yawning while he stretched the sleep from his muscles. Retracting his arms as he slowly stood up he looked across the room and saw Theodore doing the same but Alvin was still snuggly tucked into his blankets tried to remain asleep for a s long as he could. Turning towards the bed of his older brother, he shook the lump under the covers getting only a disgruntled groan, "time to get up Alvin" Simon said putting his glasses on.

Alvin continued to lie under his covers for a few more moments letting his eyes remain shut, content to just lay there and do nothing. The red clad chipmunk never particularly wanted to get up early or go to school for that matter; he had always despised the idea of being forced to learn what he thought to be useless information about math and science. Sighing softly to himself as sleep was about to take him back into its warm embrace he began to think about how redundant his day would be compared to every other day of the year. Get up early, go to school, go to Brittany's houses-

That was it! That was well his train of thought stopped and he got off that was reason enough for him to become suddenly excited to start the day. The chipmunk's deep blue eyes shot wide open as he sat bolt upright in his bed. Looking around quickly he jumped to the floor and quickly got dressed. Grabbing his cap off his bed post he hurried out of the bed room and down the stairs to join his brothers in the kitchen where Dave had just finished making breakfast for the trio. Dave was slightly surprised to see his son awake so promptly usually Alvin required a bit more coaxing to get out of bed on a school day, "good morning Alvin" the dark haired man greeted, his surprise quite evident in his voice and expression.

"Good morning Dave" Alvin replied with a cheerful smile, Dave put a plate of pancakes in front of each chipmunk who made very quick work of their breakfast. Thanking Dave for breakfast they went about gathering what they needed for the school day before departing on their walk to school for the day.

Meeting up with Jeanette and Eleanor the 5 chipmunks continued their walk to school together. Although Alvin dreaded the school day ahead of him he looked forward to the reward at the end, but as the morning dragged on he felt as if the school day would have no end. Eventually though the chipmunk found himself sitting in his last class watching the seconds tick by collecting into minutes making the minute hand edge ever closer to the top of the clock. Staring intently at the clock on the wall in front of him Alvin found himself nearly holding his breath as he waited for the last 30 seconds to pass. As the second hand stuck the 58 second mark on the last minute he braced himself against his desk, his eyes now glued to the door as he waited for the final bell to ring. Realizing the bell should have rung by now Alvin stole a glance back to the clock, the second hand had just moved past the hour causing Alvin to have a brief panic attack right before the sharp noise of the bell relieved his nerves. Using his desk the chipmunk propelled himself out of his seat and towards the door. The red clad chipmunk was the first person through the classroom door and the first person out the main doors of the school. Once out of the building and free from the possibility of getting caught up in a crowd the chipmunk slowed his pace slightly as he kept a brisk walk down the sidewalk. As he walked he began to ponder why he was in such a rush to get to Brittany's house, why he was so excited to see her. Sure they were friends, and it was true that he valued their friendship over just about any other relationship he held with anybody, she was almost family. As he neared the large Victorian he put these thoughts on the back burner but made a mental note to contemplate it later.

Reaching the house of his ill friend he decided to skip the front door, if he could avoid a confrontation and conversation with Miss Miller he would prefer to, she could be very long winded in her discussions. Continuing past the door he walked around the side of the house where the large tree stood that he used the previous day to enter the house in a similar fashion. Making quick work of the climb to the second story branch Alvin carefully crawled out onto the branch and slid the unlocked window open allowing him to gain entry to the chipettes' bedroom. Silently climbing over the sill, he dropped to the floor and crept over to the bed where Brittany was currently sleeping soundly. Taking a moment to look over her sleeping form he found himself getting lost as he gazed at her sleeping face, he quickly shook his head to refocus but smiled at the peaceful expression she had on her face as she appeared to be sleeping more peacefully than she was the previous day. Taking another step towards the bed he slowly reached out and gently caressed her cheek making her smile from the touch in her dreams. Withdrawing his hand the chipmunk turned to leave the room to let her sleep in peace. No sooner had he turned his back and took his first step away when a small voice from behind him stopped him, "don't go Alvin" she whispered softly.

Turning around he saw the chipette still lying in bed covered up in her blankets but groggily awake weakly smiling over at him. Rolling over onto her back she pushed herself to a sitting position, resting herself against the head board of the bed as he slowly began to walk back over to her. As the chipmunk walked back towards the bed she lightly patted a spot on bed beside her in a gesture for Alvin to sit.

Alvin gladly obliged, pulling himself up onto the bed he kicked off his shoes and settled down to a sitting position with his legs folded next to the chipette who brushed a few locks of hair from her face. "How was school?" she asked trying to create small talk as she struggled to keep her eyes open.

Shrugging slightly the chipmunk replied "eh…it was school, you know the usual…be happy you weren't there" Alvin said with a halfhearted smile trying to put a silver lined spin on her bedridden state.

Brittany gave a very soft shrug before nodding lightly and slowly at this, "I would rather be there then here" she said moving her legs under the covers so she too was sitting with her legs folded with her lower body still under the blankets.

Alvin nodded his understanding; he knew it must be rough having to stay not only in the house all day but in bed as well. He knew he would never be able to tolerate being indoors so much he would go mad. As he watched her stunning ice blue eyes slowly slide shut and open again for the umpteenth time he figured he would say something addressing his observation, "tired?" he asked thoughtfully.

Brittany nodded slowly letting her eyes stay closed for a good few moments before verbally answering as she opened her eyes again, "I had fallen asleep not long before you got here", she said in almost a whisper as she let her eyes close yet again, this time however she did not fight it, she just let them remain closed.

"I'm sorry I didn't mean to wake you" Alvin said regretfully. But Brittany quickly shook off his apology, "it's alright… I'd rather spend the time with you than sleep… I can sleep when you leave for the night".

That sentiment meant the world to Alvin, it made his heart warm with joy because it meant that their friendship was truly restored to its former glory. It delighted him more than anything else possibly could to hear her say that, but he felt this undying urge to detest the statement have her sleep anyway, "you have no idea how much that means to me but you should rest though".

Seeing that she was heavily thinking about this concept of rest, Alvin pressed a little harder, "come on Britt, lay down… you don't have to sleep but lay down and rest, I'll stay right here to keep you company the whole time".

Finally giving in not only to Alvin but the overwhelming fatigue she felt, the chipette wriggled herself back down to a laying position and looked up at him with a grateful smile as he pulled the blankets up around her shoulders. Her and Alvin both knew that once she laid down she was fighting a losing battle with sleep so she prepared to give in and drift away to sleep. Continuing to fight off the ever warm and inviting sensation she let out a yawn as she stared up into the chipmunks deep blue eyes while he looked down into her ice blue orbs. "Since you're making me sleep it's only fair that you nap with me" she said scooting over to give him enough room to lie down beside her.

Hesitating for a moment on this decision he looked down at her drowsily pleading eyes, he was pretty tired and could use a nap, his day at school was more draining then usual but he also did not sleep too well the previous night. Finally giving in to the chipette's wishes Alvin shrugged and slid to a laying position, making sure he left some space between himself and the chipette. This was mostly for his own comfort more so than anything else; Alvin was a big fan of personal space. Both chipmunks laid under the blankets on their sides facing each other, Brittany closed her eyes and waited for sleep to take her while Alvin continued to lay there awake watching the auburn haired chipette. Even though it was warm outside and she was under a layer of blankets Brittany still seemed to be chilled, whatever was causing her to be ill seemed to cool her internal body temperature as one of the more prominent symptoms. As he watched her Alvin noticed her body quake with a shiver every once in a while. Already knowing the answer, Alvin asked the question anyway, "are you cold?"

Without opening her eyes Brittany nodded just before another shiver that started at the base of her spine rocked her body as it traveled through her, "cold spells are one of the symptoms they're trying to treat".

Not sure of what his course of action should be he continued lying about a foot in front of her. Sighing softly he closed his eyes pondering a solution to his friends 'chill' problem. Brittany on the other hand had a solution she was already putting into motion. Rolling over onto her other side so she was facing away from him, she scooted closer to him closing the gap between them. As she pressed her back against his warm front he sighed as he slowly opened his eyes, "Britt…" he whispered softly, he had been very careful to preserve her personal space, and he would have appreciated the same respect of his space. He did not finish his statement however because he could feel her body involuntarily shuddering as she pressed herself against him for warmth.

Realizing she needed the extra warmth to keep the cold spells at bay Alvin managed to forgo his need and wanting of personal space for his friends comfort. Knowing how much he loved having his personal space Brittany was very grateful he allowed her to be that close to him, "thank you Alvin" she murmured softly letting her brain and body shut down putting her into a happy dream world.

"Don't mention it" Alvin whispered genuinely in her ear as he too began to feel the grogginess that made him want to do nothing but sleep, the added warmth from the chipette's body heat was enough to push the chipmunk over the edge into the catechism of sleep. Before falling asleep though he was able to discern the difference in Brittany's breathing as she managed to beat him to a slumbering state causing him to smile and retain that grin even as he slept peacefully beside his friend.

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"Time to wake up Alvin… you're going to be late for school" a high pitched chipmunk voice said in a soft but loud enough tone to slowly break Alvin from his peaceful slumber.

The voice was familiar to Alvin but it didn't sound quite like his brother Simon, it was higher pitched but the chipmunk assumed it must have been Simon, who else could it have been?

"I'm up Simon" the chipmunk mumbled groggily not moving or opening his eyes as he wriggled his neck slightly to find a more comfortable position for his head.

"Uh…try again Alvin" the voice said, now in a more conscious state the voice came in so much clearer to the half-asleep chipmunk. Fully recognizing the voice Alvin's eyes shot wide open in confusion, looking up past the auburn haired chipette that was still happily sleeping with her body pressed up against his for his body heat, he turned his head slightly to see Jeanette standing at the edge of the bed looking down at him with a very amused expression on her face.

"Good morning Alvin" she said with an amused smile as she watched the confusion build on his face, it was obvious that he did not remember falling asleep the previous night so Jeanette explained this for him "you fell asleep here yesterday so Miss Miller called Dave and let him know we were keeping you for the night".

Taking in Jeanette's explained Alvin shook the sleep from his head as he began to remember the events of the previous night that had led to him falling asleep in Brittany's bed. Coming to terms with the reason as to why he was at the chipettes' he breathed a sigh of relief knowing that Dave was called, this simple action saved him from a lecture and possibly a grounding. Letting his eyes slide closed in content Alvin let his head flop back down onto the pillow before he made his attempt to get up and out of bed. Making a conscious decision to rejoin the world of the living he rolled away from Brittany and got out of bed. Dropping to the floor beside the bed he tucked the blankets back around the chipette once more to hopefully keep her warm in his absence.

"Come on… breakfast is ready" Jeanette said beckoning him to follow her down the stairs. Leaving the sleeping chipette in bed Alvin snatched up his sneakers and followed Jeanette down the stairs to the kitchen where Miss Miller and Eleanor were already eating breakfast.

"How'd you sleep dearie?" the older woman asked him as he took a seat beside Eleanor. Alvin scratched the side of his head in brief thought before answering, "pretty well I suppose."

"Good to hear" Miss Miller replied putting a few waffles on his plate which Alvin gladly accepted and began chowing down on.

Not too much later Alvin, Jeanette and Eleanor began their walk to school. The chipmunk trio walked in silence until they met up with Alvin's brothers at their usual intersection. Upon reuniting with his brother, Simon figured he would be cordial in his greeting "how was your sleepover?" he asked his older brother as he handed him his book bag with his text books in it.

"Rejuvenating" Alvin replied with a grin as he took his book bag from his brother, but his grin quickly faded as he slid the straps over his shoulders, "I forgot to do my homework" he muttered very downtrodden by this fact knowing his grades would surely hurt even more so then they already did.

Seeing his brother's downcast expression over uncompleted homework assignments Simon patted his older brother on the shoulder lightly, "don't worry… I took care of you"

As he turned to look at his younger brother with a mixture of surprise and gratitude, he saw him holding several papers in his outstretched hand. Taking the papers from the bespectacled chipmunk he nodded his gratitude, "thanks Si… you're the greatest".

The blue clad chipmunk shrugged off the compliment, "you're welcome… it was harder than you would think, I had to purposely make mistakes on the math, or no one would have believed it was yours." He said with a friendly grin, "let's get to school before we're late" he finished as he began walking in the direction of the school with everyone else joining alongside.

The school day passed in its own seemingly sluggish time much like the past few days had, it was almost intolerable. Alvin survived the almost insufferable torture others called school but at the end of the school day he found himself on his way to Brittany's house again to spend the afternoon and evening with her to keep her company while she was bedridden. This time however he remembered to bring his homework with him so that he could work on it while he occupied the chipette's idol time.

In her bedroom he sat with his legs folded Indian style on top of the thick pink blanket on the chipette's bed directly across from his friend, having very little to entertain his friend with he used his homework to absorb the spare time they shared together. Although neither Alvin nor Brittany particularly enjoyed doing math homework, working on Alvin's pre-algebra worksheets seemed to be quite enjoyable for the two of them not because math was either exciting or fun but because they were doing it together and it made it possible for them to spend time together.

Much to Alvin's liking, this pattern of school in the morning, Brittany's house in the afternoon, repeat, became the chipmunk's daily routine for the rest of the week. Even though he had no grudge against the daily sequence of events for each weekday he still looked forward to Saturday. Not only did he not have school but since he was completely free for the day he was available to spend all day with his friend, unabridged by school or homework.

Being Friday he had already prepared a little surprise for Brittany that he was sure would help her feel better or at least cheer her up. Going through the school day as usual he looked forward to this evening more so than any of the other evenings of the past week, he was not sure why, it really was not any different than any other afternoon. It might have been because the next day was Saturday, or he could have been just excited to see his friend but, he was not sure what the true reason was and in reality to Alvin it made little difference. Shouldering his backpack he waited for Jeanette and Eleanor at the entrance of the school to walk them home, a custom he had adopted mid-week, seeing as all three of the chipmunks had the same destination. As the trio bid Simon and Theodore farewell at the intersection as usual they walked towards the Miller's house.

Deciding to break the still silence between the three friends on the last leg of their short journey Alvin began to speak, "so… if it's alright with you guys and Miss Miller of course, Dave said I could stay the night again".

Barely casting a glance at her sister who nodded Jeanette decided to speak not only for herself but her sister as well, "it's fine with us…and I'm sure Brittany will be thrilled".

Alvin nodded his appreciation of the chipettes' permission just before Jeanette began speaking again, "besides the more time you spend with her, the better off she'll probably be in the long run" the brunette chipette stated coming to stop on the porch.

Coming to a stop beside her directly in front of the door Alvin spun slowly to the side to face her, "what do you mean exactly?" he questioned unsure by what exactly she meant.

Not sure at first of how to better explain it the tall chipette shrugged as she thought about it before she finally answered, "you have this unexplainable effect on her… when you're around she seems full of life and happy, when you're not around she gets very lethargic and practically shuts down".

Taking the compliment in stride, he was unsure of how he should properly respond so he decided to come back with a classic Alvin style quip, "unexplainable effects is usually what I have on people… it's just who I am". Putting on his best smile he looked at the chipettes and quickly wiggled his eyebrows up and down a few times making the two chipettes giggle at him. Opening the door to continue inside Jeanette turned back towards Alvin and said, "I'll let Miss Miller know you'll be staying the night".

Nodding his gratitude Alvin walked up the stairs and knocked lightly on the bedroom door and waited until he heard Brittany's voice say from the other side, "come in". Entering the room Alvin strode over to Brittany's bed where she sat resting against the headboard smiling ear to ear upon catching sight of the red capped chipmunk. Seeing how happy she was to see him put a smile on Alvin's face as well. Kicking off his shoes he pulled himself up onto the bed and sat on the edge, "I've got a surprise for you" the chipmunk said sporting a small grin. Looking at him slightly puzzled, Brittany eyed him up unsure of what surprise he could have and even somewhat unsure if she even wanted to know, it was Alvin after all, the surprise could be anything, good or bad.

Seeing her eyeing him up Alvin let the silence collect building suspense, finally Brittany grew impatient as she usually did she hated waiting for surprises. "Well, are you going to tell me?" she asked hastily as her patients ran out completely.

"I'm gonna sleep over tonight" he said throwing his arms up in a 'surprise' sort of gesture, "and then I'm going to spend all of tomorrow with you… if that's alright with you?" he finally said revealing his surprise. Smiling very happily at this concept Brittany nodded her head before responding, "I'd like that a lot".

Alvin smiled back at her with great pleasure that he was able to brighten her day that much by just showing up and staying around. "I figured you'd like that" he whispered turning his body to slide to a more reclined sitting position beside her.

After sometime of conversing had passed an aroma of fresh made dinner began to waft its way into the bedroom and found its way to the nostrils of the two chipmunks making both of them hungrier. Generally one of her sisters would bring dinner up to her but tonight Brittany wanted to try something new. "Dinners almost ready" she said with a smile pointing out an obvious fact that Alvin could easily tell as well, "help me get up".

Quite skeptical about this Alvin hesitated, "I thought the doctors didn't want you doing things that caused you to exert too much energy, you know like climbing stairs?"

"It's a good thing I have you to help me then" she replied with a small grin tossing the blankets aside and pivoting her body to slide off the bed. Still seeing how hesitant he was of helping her, her grin faded, "Alvin, it's been a week since I've left this room, I just want to eat dinner with my family… will you help me or not?"

Sighing softly Alvin caved in, he did not think it was a good idea but he went along with her anyway because he knew she was going to do it with or without his help. Watching carefully as she swung her legs over the side of the bed he wrapped his arm around her back letting her put her arm on his shoulder to take most of the weight off her weak legs. Although she really did not need it until the actual stairs, Alvin supported her as they walked out of the room. Making sure to take it nice and slow the duo slowly and carefully made their way the stairs and into the kitchen. Catching sight of the pair rounding the corner, Miss Miller stopped to address her adoptive daughter, "Brittany, the doctor said you have to stay in bed and rest until they can complete the tests".

Weakly nodding her understanding Brittany explained "I just want to eat dinner with the family… after dinner Alvin will take me right back upstairs". Looking from Alvin to Brittany in contemplation Miss Miller gave in, "ok… I don't see any harm in that I suppose".

Alvin helped Brittany over to the table where they took their seats and waited for dinner to be served. Over joyed that she got to spend dinner with her family, Brittany was more than accepting when she was told it was time for her to go back to bed. Letting Alvin support her they slowly made their way up the stairs and before long the journey back to the bedroom was over, Brittany was back in her bed and Alvin sat across from her reclining against the bedpost at the foot of her bed. Letting out a heavy breath Brittany sighed, "that was more exhausting than I thought it was going to be" she practically whispered barely loud enough for Alvin to hear her.

"That's why they don't want you to do things like that" Alvin put in kindly as he watched her eye lids slowly slide closed. Although she was not sleeping she felt as if she could, the trip down stairs was not too bad it was the uphill climb that wore her out. Seeing her slowly nod off prompted him to ask the obvious question. "You ready to go to sleep?" he asked softly, just watching her nod off made him tired.

At first she shook her head but let out a long yawn that quickly turned her negative reaction to a positive one as she nodded quickly, "yea…I think so" she said slowly. Alvin gave a quick nod before departing from the room briefly; changing into his pajama pants and a t-shirt he returned to the bedroom and climbed up into her bed and laid down beside her again. "Goodnight Alvin" she whispered softly as she slowly drifted off to sleep. "Good night Britt" Alvin replied but she did not hear him because she had already fallen victim to sleeps comforting embrace. Alvin on the other hand laid awake for a while longer pondering a few different thoughts. His thoughts mostly centered on Brittany and her condition, he wondered what could possibly incapacitate her in this way, she had never been this sick before, what could have brought this on? As he thought about this his brain waves slowly traveled from one terminal to another on a different train of thought, he began again to question and deliberate on his and hers current friendship status. He had come to accept that the bond had been truly repaired and restored but would it last? Was this just temporary, when she got better would they separate again and began fighting again or would this friendship last?

He did not have the answers to these questions and his brain did not stay awake long enough to fully contemplate the questions to even began to consider possible answers. Not too long after these thoughts filled his head his mind began to shut down due to the overwhelming amount of information he was trying to process. Letting his conscious mind black out his subconscious began filling with pleasant dreams as he faded off to sleep.

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 _A/N: Yea ok, the ending of this chapter was not the best… I blame late night editing, I hopefully update soon within a week is the plan… catch you guys on the next post!_


	8. Arms Around Me

_A/N: Here's chapter 8 for you guys, I won't keep you this time, go ahead and enjoy the chapter!_

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Slowly waking from his slumber Alvin became aware of the warm body that was pressed against his. Letting his eyes slowly slide open he came to realize what he already knew, the body belonged to Brittany, who he was sure used him for comforting warmth throughout the night. Remaining lying on his side he stretched and rotated his neck in a circular motion to relieve the stiffness of sleep. Pushing his hand under himself he propped himself up on his elbow, craning his neck Alvin leaned forward to look down at the chipette's face who had her back turned towards him. Smiling to himself the chipmunk relaxed his body returning to a less strained position still using his elbow and arm to keep himself propped up.

No sooner had Alvin returned to his relaxed position did the chipette begin to stir and break free from the comfortable hold of sleep. Letting her eyes remained closed as she yawned she rolled over onto her back letting her head tilt to the side slightly. Completing her yawn the chipette slowly opened her eyes to find herself looking up into the face of her friend; smiling at him happily she pushed herself to a sitting position. Briefly stretching out her arms the chipette yawned again and rubbed the sleep from her eyes. While she continued to mentally wake herself up Alvin disappeared from the room, after a few moments Brittany heard him conversing with her sisters just on the other side of the door out in the hallway but could not make out what they were saying. Stepping back into the room Alvin returned dressed in his usual blue jeans and red sweater adorned with a large yellow 'A'. Slinging his cap onto his head with the brim up just out of view he turned back to the chipette and said, "you better get dressed… they're gonna be back soon".

Looking very perplexed at his statement Brittany inquired further, "who's going to be back soon?"

"You're sisters, and my brothers" Alvin replied, usually on Saturdays the sextet would spend the day in the park enjoying the outdoors or go for a walk around the neighborhood. "Alvin I'm not supposed to go outside…I'm not even supposed to leave this room" she replied her voice showing her displeasure at her situation.

Shrugging off her tone he continued, "so we hang out around here… we can find something to occupy our time… besides the company will be good for you".

Happily caving in her face was overtaken by a wide smile, "ok… give me a few minutes to get dressed".

Alvin nodded happily before departing from the room to give her some privacy so she could get dressed; as he closed the bedroom door behind himself he heard the sound of the front door accompanied by the joyful chatter of his friends and brothers. Running for the stairs he grabbed the railing of the stairs and hopped onto the polished hardwood railing and slid the entire way down. Hopping off at the bottom he joined the group, "she's upstairs getting dressed" Alvin explained.

Simon nodded slowly, "you know Alvin this was a good idea, happy experiences will trigger a release of endorphins and dopamine and these chemicals when released in the brain can make a person feel better… even on a biological level happiness can fight sickness."

Alvin made a face that cleared stated that he barely understood a word Simon said but he was pretending that he cared, "yea… that's nice Simon" Alvin replied brushing off his brother's science talk about brain chemicals. After waiting a little while longer to give their friend adequate time to finish getting dressed the group continued on their way upstairs. Taking the lead Alvin gently gave the door a quick knock, to which was replied to with a "come in" from beyond the hardwood barrier. Entering the room they found Brittany sitting in front of her mirror brushing her auburn hair, she was dressed in her usual outfit, pink shirt and slightly darker pink skirt. Putting down the brush she gathered most of her hair and put it into her usual pony tail letting a few locks fall around the side of her face. Turning around to face everybody, it was easy to see she was still very pale and her entire body had a very frail look but overall she looked pretty good, she looked better than she had. Standing up slowly she moved over to the group and stood with them for a few minutes while Simon and Theodore exchanged some small talk with her about how she was feeling and how she was doing since they had not seen her in a little while.

After a few minutes of standing with the others she was overtaken by a light dizzy spell, trying to hide it she shuffled the few feet over to her bed and sat down on the edge. Saying nothing the group followed with her and gathered around some sitting on the edge of the bed the rest taking seats on the floor.

"Since we're all here what are we going to do?" Brittany asked looking around the group for activity suggestions.

"Well, I was speaking with Simon on the way over here and an idea we had was to have a movie day" Jeanette offered.

"Yea we can do it right here in the bedroom" Simon jumped in "we can hang a white sheet on the wall, shut the lights off, close the curtains use a projector…" Simon began trailing off thoughtfully as he continued to mentally plan out how this would work.

"I'm game" Brittany said with a delighted smile.

"If we're all in agreeance, myself and Jeanette will set up the projector, Theodore and Eleanor, see if you can find some extra blankets and pillows to make the floor more comfortable" Simon said walking with Jeanette to the closet where she kept her laptop and projector.

"What about me Simon, what do you need me to do?" Brittany asked refusing to be or feel useless, any other time Brittany would have assigned herself to a supervisor like position but this time she wanted to be involved to prove to the others that she was still capable of being a useful person and not just some bedridden child. Turning back to her Simon motioned to the windows, "if you could close the curtains for us, that's a good start".

Brittany nodded and slowly walked over to the window to close the curtains on the first window. Watching her begin her task Alvin walked over to the second window and shut the curtains before meeting her halfway between both windows. Returning to where Simon was setting up the projector Alvin asked if he needed any other assistance which Simon politely turned down. Before the hour had passed they had transformed the chipettes' bedroom into their own personnel movie theater for the day.

After much discussion and debate they finally selected several movies to start the day long marathon with that they had planned out. Taking time between each movie they would discuss the film and sometimes criticize it as well as grab a snack or meal if the hour dictated for them to do so. This pattern lasted them the entire afternoon and into the evening.

Late that evening after the credits of the last movie scrolled past on their makeshift screen Jeanette switched off the projector. Theodore took that as a cue to turn on the lights so he got to his feet and hit the lights. As the dark room was filled with sudden brightness both Alvin and Brittany woke from their sleeping states due to the drastic change in from dark to light. Alvin had fallen sleep propped against a stack of pillows; resting his head on Brittany's whose was slouched on his shoulder. Both chipmunks sat forward blinking their eyes trying to get them used to the dazzling brightness.

"Let's get this place cleaned up" Simon announced as he began packing up Jeanette's projector for her. After reassembling the bedroom to its former state the three chipmunks bid their friends good night and headed home to get some much needed sleep.

As they debarked from the large Victorian the boys walked in silence for a little while, Alvin was grateful for the silence. He needed to think about some things and trying to hold a conversation and contemplate his thoughts was one too many things to be done at once. Breaking himself free from his own thoughts he turned his head slightly to look at his taller brother.

"Simon… what do you think is wrong with Brittany?" Alvin asked his smarter brother catching him off guard.

Displaying his surprise of the question the chipmunk whipped his head around to look at his brother, "I couldn't possibly answer that Alvin…her symptoms are very generic". Simon chose his words carefully when replying to his brother's question; he knew her symptoms could be caused by almost anything because like he had already said, they were very generic. It could be nothing, something bad, something terrible or anything in between.

Although it was the answer he expected it was not the answer he wanted, "take a guess?" Alvin said making it sound more like a question then a request.

Simon took a deep breath, he really did not want to take a guess, he hated guessing, he was a man of science he had no respect for guesses but he knew his older brother held his opinion in high regard and generally held whatever he would say as fact even if unproven. "If I had to render a guess I would say she has contracted a moderately dangerous disease, that is noncontagious and able to be easily treated… in short, I'm sure, in time she'll be fine" he said to put his older brother at ease, _'I hope, anyway'_ he added mentally.

Alvin let go of a long breath his brain was put at ease by his brother's statement, it felt as if a weight was lifted from the chipmunk's chest. The burden was shed from his shoulders, _'she's gonna be fine, Simon said so… he's never wrong so she'll fine'_ the red clad chipmunk thought very relieved by his brother's prognosis of his friend.

Reaching their house the three brothers turned off the sidewalk and sauntered up the path to their door. Entering the house they briefly greeted their father and bid him goodnight before continuing up to their bedroom to get ready for bed.

The next morning when Brittany woke up she was fairly excited to start the day, getting out of bed and getting dressed with the help of her sisters the trio made it down stairs where Miss Miller was finishing up making breakfast. Being Sunday all three girls were dressed in their fancier than average clothes for church, much to everyone's surprise Brittany took quite a liking to attending Sunday church. After breakfast the small family headed off to church for the hour long service. Although Brittany did not fully understand the concept of religion and faith she did enjoy singing the songs and psalms and she found much delight in hearing the stories from the Bible. In the story that was read during this service, the man named Jesus miraculously healed a man suffering from a condition known then and now as Leprosy, better known in modern times as Hansen's disease. As the story was concluded she could not help but wonder if she could be cured of her ailments in the same fashion as this man in the story or the many others documented in the Bible.

One sentence in the story seemed to click with her but she did not know why, "because of your faith you are healed". She wondered if her faith had something to do with being cured in such a miraculous manner. Sighing heavily to herself she let the idea slide, _'that sort of thing just doesn't happen anymore'_ she thought somewhat disappointed by this, _'oh well… it was a nice thought while it lasted'_.

After church that day the Miller family returned home and the three sisters split up going their separate ways after Jeanette and Eleanor aided their sister in returning to her bedroom. Taking the afternoon the three sisters spent the next few hours together conversing and enjoying each other's company. As the afternoon turned to evening Alvin stopped by for a quick visit, passing Jeanette and Eleanor on the stairs they exchanged pleasantries in passing. Coming to the door Alvin knocked but did not wait for a reply before entering the chipette's bedroom where he knew he would find Brittany. The chipette had not even noticed his knock she was too busy puzzling over the large book that sat in her lap. Moving closer to her the chipmunk stopped a few feet from the bed and cleared his throat softly to subtly grab her attention.

It worked, snapping her head up quickly she smiled in delight upon seeing the chipmunk but her face was still clouded with a look of befuddlement. "Hey Alvin… I was not expecting you to come over today" she said honestly as he pulled himself up onto the bed to sit with her.

The chipmunk shrugged, "I figured I would stop by… I wasn't doing anything else anyway" he took a moment to look at the book, realizing it was her Bible he questioned this, "reading the Bible?"

She nodded slowly "yea… so many people were healed back then" she said softly letting her voice trail off. She saw the chipmunk was about to speak so she beat him to it, "I know that sort of thing doesn't happen anymore… it just gives me hope, even if I know it won't happen".

Alvin nodded his understanding, she knew him too well, he was going to gently put her back into reality but she had already placed herself there so he let the subject drop. Letting his eyes fall on the large book he slowly took it from her, "I like reading the Bible too".

"You mean you like looking at the pictures" Brittany quipped.

"I read the picture captions when I do… that counts right?" he replied with a cheeky grin

Brittany chuckled as she shook her head, "sure it does Alvin" she replied sarcastically.

Alvin stayed for a little while longer before he declared that it was time for him to head home for the night. Being Sunday night he did have school the next morning so he did have to be up early, like it or not it was nonnegotiable.

.

.

For Brittany the days to follow seemed to pass more quickly; with the medicine helping to ease her symptoms and help her cope with her illness making her more mobile and less fragile. She quickly became accustomed to the routine and had no quarrel with it, wake up in the morning, nap in the early afternoon, spend the afternoon and evening with Alvin, sleep again then repeat. Although Alvin would usually use the afternoon with Brittany to do his homework he would general bring something along for entertainment. Usually he would bring his guitar or his harmonica so he and Brittany could sing some of their favorite songs and occasionally try to write a song or two of their own. With the help of Alvin the days quickly turned into weeks and before she knew it, the day of her medical tests was right around the corner bringing with it a bitter sweet attitude.

The day was Sunday, the day before Brittany went in for her tests, knowing she would need all the moral support she could get Alvin went over to chipette's house in the afternoon much like every Sunday. Carrying with him his acoustic guitar in its carrying case, he knocked briefly before entering her room where she was awake and sitting up in her bed. Climbing up next to her he sat crossed legged across from her with his guitar resting in his lap and his chin on top of the body of the guitar. "How was church?" Alvin asked with a short smile as he repositioned to slowly strum the strings of his guitar, more recently Brittany had started to become more proactive in her faith and attendance at church and Alvin took note of this. Having noticed his friend's interest to delve deeper into her chosen religion Alvin became very supportive, reading the Bible with her, praying with her, sometimes even attending church with her on Sundays.

Brittany seemed distant, more so than usual as she lifted her shoulders in a light shrug as she sighed softly. Instead of answering his question she chose to ask him a different question instead, "do you believe in Heaven, Alvin?"

Somewhat taken off guard by the sudden and direct question the chipmunk ceased his soft strumming and raised his head to look across to stare into her face, with little to no hesitation he nodded, "yea… I suppose I do, I never gave it a lot of thought to be honest". He let his voice trail off as he watched her reaction but she seemed to just take in the information given to her and not really react in any particular way.

Alvin expected the chipette to follow up with another question or a statement but instead she just remained silent stared thoughtfully at the guitar the chipmunk had resting in his lap. The two chipmunks slowly fell into a weird silence just contemplating the very short exchange that had just happened between them. Deciding to mellow out the silence Alvin began strumming on his guitar strings again creating a soft slow melody. He continued to just play his guitar for a few minutes before he tried to start a new conversation, "so tomorrow you get those tests done… I bet you're excited?"

Brittany shrugged, "yea excited" she said but her voice sounded all but excited and Alvin was able to quickly pick up on the lack of excitement in her voice.

"You don't sound too excited" he said softly trying to coax her to talk about it

"It's more scary than exciting" she replied brushing a stray lock of hair away from her face.

Following through with his strum Alvin let his fingers glide over the strings once more before pressing his hand against them to prevent the small vibrations from echoing from the guitar. "Why are you scared?" he asked curiously.

Sighing loudly, the chipette moved her head to the side slightly, "what if they find something bad… like really bad?"

Starting to see it from her perspective the chipmunk nodded his understanding, but in his eyes not knowing was worse than knowing a painful truth, "but they might not, you have to stay positive Britt, besides even if they do find something bad at least you'll know and be able to fix it then".

Nodding slightly as she shrugged sadly, "I guess you're right, but I'm still scared" she said in a slightly hushed tone.

Reaching out over his guitar he picked her hands up in his and rubbed her knuckles with his thumbs as he held her hands. "No matter what happens tomorrow, I'll be here for you Britt, I'll be here to support you and get you through it… we're in this together" the red capped chipmunk said smiling at her softly making her blush a light pink.

Letting out a breath she turned her hands while letting them remain in his to gasp his as well, "thank you Alvin, I don't know what I'd do without a friend like you".

Taking the compliment in stride the chipmunk merely smiled at her before returning to playing his guitar. Instead of just running his fingers across the strings too make a soothing melody Alvin began the intro to a song that came to mind for the occasion.

As the chipmunk continued to play he began singing the words in a mellow tone,

" _I see you standing here  
But you're so far away,  
Starving for your attention  
You don't even know my name_

 _You're going through so much  
But I know that I could be the one to hold you_

 _Every single day  
I find it hard to say  
I could be yours alone  
You will see someday  
That all along the way  
I was yours to hold  
I was yours to hold_

 _I see you walking by  
Your hair always hiding your face  
I wonder why you've been hurting  
I wish I had some way to say_

 _You're going through so much  
Don't you know that I could be the one to hold you_

 _Every single day  
I find it hard to say  
I could be yours alone  
You will see someday  
That all along the way  
I was yours to hold  
I was yours to hold_

 _I'm stretching but you're just out of reach  
You should know  
I'm ready when you're ready for me  
And I'm waiting for the right time  
For the day I catch your eye  
To let you know  
That I'm yours to hold_

 _Every single day  
I find it hard to say  
I could be yours alone  
You will see someday  
That all along the way  
I was yours to hold  
I was yours to hold_

 _Every single day  
I find it hard to say  
I could be yours alone  
You will see someday  
That all along the way  
I was yours to hold  
I was yours to hold_

 _I'm stretching but you're just out of reach  
I'm ready when you're ready for me"_

As he sang out the last verse the chipmunk finished running his fingers across the strings allowing the last vibration from the body of the guitar to slowly fade away.

Brittany smiled at him very pleased by the song, "that was beautiful Alvin".

Alvin gave a light nod in appreciation, "a beautiful song… for a beautiful girl"

Brittany smiled at the compliment, ever since she was sentenced to spend most of her days in bed she had become very self-conscientious of how she looked. She always felt that she looked terrible mostly because of how she felt, she always relied on her makeup and beauty supplies to supplement where she believed she had flaws but since falling sick she did not bother with any of that because she stayed in the house and away from the public. Although they were friends she was not used to getting compliments of that magnitude from him, it was something different, something new, something she did not necessarily mind.

Deciding to leave much earlier in the evening then he normally would to allow her to get ample rest for her big day tomorrow the chipmunk packed up his guitar and started heading out. Making it to the door of her bedroom the chipette stopped him by saying, "see you tomorrow?"

Turning back around to face her he nodded, "after school like always". With that established the chipmunk departed leaving his friend so she could get a good night's sleep.

As he left the house and stood on the sidewalk he stole a look back at the second story window that belonged to the chipette's bedroom. "I hope she's gonna be alright, hopefully they won't find anything too bad on the tests" he whispered to himself. He was hopeful and optimistic for her sake but he could not shake this nagging feeling that something was very wrong with his friend, he just could not place pin down the feeling.

Turning away from the house he began walking towards home, "she'll be fine" he told himself slinging his guitar case's strap over his shoulder, "I hope" he added hesitantly as the irksome feeling sprung up yet again tainting his optimism.

* * *

 _A/N: The song used in this chapter is called "Yours to Hold" by Skillet_ _ **Disclaimer: I do not own "Yours to Hold" or Skillet.**_ _Wouldn't want to get hit with copyright infringement would I? There you go fellas; that's chapter 8 hit me up with reviews, questions, comments, concerns all of the like. Until next time guys, peace out._


	9. Every Little Thing

_**A/N: Hey guys, I'm back, I hope nobody missed me too much! The last couple of weeks have been terribly hectic and very unforgiving on me so I'll apologize for the late update and I'll let you get right into it so here's chapter 9 for you guys. Like always, read, enjoy and review!**_

* * *

Waking the next morning to the pleasant sounds of the birds chirping outside his window and the not so pleasant sound of the alarm clocks purposely obnoxious continuous beeping, Alvin turned over groaning loudly in contempt of the idea of waking up.

Reacting more so out of reflex, Simon quickly reached over and shut off the clock and stood from his bed, moving his head around in a circular motion to loosen up his stiff muscles he saw, like usual, that his younger brother had, much like himself, rejoined the realm of the living while his older brother continued to lay in his bed half asleep, "time to get up Alvin" he announced briskly.

"I know" Alvin mumbled to his brother through a sigh as he continued to lie on his bed staring up at the ceiling. Sighing again he began his process of mentally preparing himself for the next five days of school.

The way Alvin saw it, there were two kinds of people in the world; those who looked at Monday and reflexed back on the previous week and made commitments to change or do things differently that may not have worked. Then there were yet another type of person, the type of person that loathed Mondays because it was the start of yet another week full of pain and sufferable activities such as school or for most adults, work. Alvin reconciled with the fact that he fit into the second group, the Monday loathers. He accepted this idea and had no quarrel with it.

On the surface and even a couple of layers down Alvin felt this way, but deep down he was excited to start a new week. Sure, the routine became tedious, and if there was one thing Alvin hated it was a routine. He knew however that it was for the greater good, he knew Brittany needed and loved to have the company and spending time with his best friend was his favorite activity.

Sighing heavily thinking about that prospect the chipmunk snapped himself back and hurried to get ready and grab breakfast before it was time to leave for school.

..

Leaving the school building that afternoon with the remaining two chipettes the trio walked to the Millers' house. Upon reaching the house they found that Miss Miller and Brittany had returned not long before they had arrived. While Jeanette and Eleanor stopped in the kitchen to greet their guardian, Alvin continued right up the stairs and down the hall to the chipettes' bedroom where he knew Brittany would be.

Reaching the bedroom door he knocked lightly before reaching for the knob but found it locked, somewhat surprised by this, he knocked a little heavier on the hardwood door. "Britt?" he asked "it's me… open the door".

Alvin waited patiently for a little while, because he knew that although she was more mobile thanks to the medications, she was still shaky on her feet and it could take her sometime to walk even a very short distance. After nearly three minutes had passed he came to the conclusion that she was not going to open the door. Unsure of exactly why she would be ignoring him he slowly pressed his ear against the door to listen. From the other side of the door he could hear… sounds, they sounded like Brittany but it sounded like she was crying. Pulling his head away from the door he stared at the door confused for a moment before knocking again, "Britt is everything ok?"

Getting no response again he slowly turned and began walking down the stairs, as he slowly walked down the steps he began to get lost in his wandering thoughts. He tried to make sense of why she would be ignoring him and why she would be crying. Continuing to walk in his puzzled daze he meandered right out of the house and down the porch steps. Reaching the sidewalk he began walking home, every once in a while he would glance back to look at the house and ponder the mystery placed before him. Although it took him almost the entire walk home to think of an idea he finally had a plan to gather more information, as he turned to his right to walk up the path he continued spinning to completely reverse his direction of travel. Tearing off at a run he sprinted back to his friend's house, upon arrival he bypassed the front door and went right around to the side of the house where his personal 'side-door-tree' was standing. Like every other time he quickly climbed the tree and scooted out onto the branch, trying to remain as stealthy as he possibly could. Cupping his hands around his eyes to prevent glare from the sun he tried to peer through the window but much to his dismay the blinds were down and the curtains were drawn preventing any attempt to see into the room. Becoming desperate he tried to push the window open but it had been locked refusing any intruders access. He knew the only reason this upstairs window would be locked would be to keep him specifically out, he just needed to know why, was she mad at him? Had he done something wrong? He tried to think of anything he could have done or said to her to make her angry or upset but he kept drawing blanks.

Having no other choice the chipmunk resorted to a most basic form of espionage to gather information since he could not get to the chipette. Propping his body against the sill of the window he leaned his head against the pane glass window to listen for any activity in the bedroom of question. Being not as thick or dense as the hardwood bedroom door, the window did a better job of letting noise waves carry through to the covert listener.

"Brittany… are you sure that's the way you want it?" he heard a voice that he guessed was Jeanette's ask, although he could not tell for sure the voice sounded distraught and stressed maybe even sad.

He did not hear Brittany's response; she could have either given a nonverbal answer or merely said it too low for Alvin to hear from his perch outside the window. He did however hear Miss Miller's follow up comment, "if that's how you want to handle it honey, we'll support you".

"Yea… that's what family's for" he heard Eleanor add, her voice was clearly distressed.

This time he did hear Brittany's response, it sounded as if it was muffled by nasal congestion from crying a great deal, "I love you guys… thank you".

Alvin listened for a while longer but the room fell silent so he took his leave and left, now more confused than before he walked back home still trying to figure out now two things. First and foremost, why was Brittany ignoring him and was it in connection with something he did or said. Secondly he had to figure out what they were talking about in the bedroom and what if any significance it held for him.

..

Waking the next morning much like he did the previous one he started to repeat his daily routine, today however there was almost a cloud like atmosphere hanging over him, his heavy contemplation was draining his concentration on other matters.

When he and his brothers met up with chipettes at the corner it took all of his self-control to restrain himself from asking the girls about the conversation he had overheard but he knew it would be better not to tip his hand and hold his cards close to the vest, so to speak. Successfully fighting the urge he asked a different question instead, "how's Brittany doing?"

Jeanette hesitated for a short moment before replying, "she's doing ok… the tests and scans they're running on her took a lot out her".

"Uh huh" Alvin said affirmatively, he knew there was more to the story but Jeanette had no reason to lie to him or hide information from him so he took her explanation at face value.

As if in response to an unasked question Jeanette said in an almost apologetic tone of voice, "she's going to be going in and out of testing all week, so she's going to need her rest, it's probably best if you don't come by until the tests are done".

This statement caught Alvin off guard, he knew the medical tests and scans would wear her down significantly but he did not think it would have that great of a toll on her. Very reluctantly Alvin agreed to give her a break and not come by this week, Jeanette reassured him that her last round of testing was on Saturday so he would be able to come by Sunday and see his friend. Happy that there was a light at the end of the week long tunnel Alvin let the matter drop and choose to just accept the entire situation at face value.

The week that now only consisted of four remaining days but seemed like forever to the chipmunk finally passed, with the week over Alvin made the short journey over to his friend's house. Much like any other Sunday Alvin waited until early afternoon before heading over to give the Millers time to return from church. Reaching the house the chipmunk snuck into the house through the unlocked front door, wanting to remain unnoticed, he crept up the stairs and into the chipettes' bedroom through the already partially open door. Brittany was sitting on a bench like seat that was built into the sill of the bay window that overlooked the front yard with her back to the door.

Smiling to himself Alvin tiptoed silently into the room and right up behind the chipette. "It's nice outside today" he said suddenly, announcing his presence and startling the chipette, Brittany jumped and let out a surprised squeak as she turned to find Alvin standing right behind her. Pressing one hand to her chest as if to manually slow down her now rapid heartbeat, she turned to the chipmunk with a half angry half relieved expression, "Alvin… don't scare me like that" she said as Alvin sat down beside her.

The chipmunk shrugged off the reprimand; "sorry" he said more out of formality than actual remorsefulness. Taking a moment he thought about her reaction and studied her face for any expression that would signal she was holding any anger or contempt for him. Getting nothing from the chipette's behaviors he did notice however a heaviness of her mood an almost somberness that was not normally there. Shaking it off he changed the subject, he asked the question that had been burning into his mind for the past week, "what did the doctors say?" he asked curious as to how the regiment of tests she had undergone went.

Brittany sighed almost sadly as she contemplated the answer as if it were a difficult question, "nothing important" she said forcing a smile at the chipmunk before saying, "let's not talk about that".

Alvin was still curious and wanted to know more but he obeyed her wish and let the subject drop, letting his gaze drop as well he noticed something in her hands, "what's that you got there?" he asked noticing a string of beads she was holding. "Oh… these" Brittany said slowly moving the beads between her fingers, "they're rosary beads".

"What do they do?" Alvin asked looking at them curiously.

Brittany giggled at him as she held the string of beads up for him to see more clearly, "nothing silly, they're prayer beads".

"I say my prayers before bed but I don't use those… how do they work?" Alvin asked his curiosity peaking.

"They're mostly to help you keep count because for each bead you say one prayer, depending on the bead and position in the chain dictates which prayer you pray" Brittany explained.

"That's a lot of prayers" Alvin said noting the length of the cord.

Brittany nodded her agreement, "have you ever thought about your faith?" the chipette asked curiously.

"Ehh…I'm not really that religious" Alvin replied "I try to be…sometimes… but it's pretty hard".

Brittany nodded understandingly, "you just have to find an interest in it, I did, and you might too if you look a little harder".

The red capped chipmunk shrugged, although not completely dismissing the idea he put it on the back burner to be thought about at a later time, "you might be right" he said thoughtfully.

"Of course I'm right… when ain't I?" Brittany replied with a smile.

"Don't take that 'know it all' tone with me" Alvin said teasingly.

"Well, I just did… what are you going to do about it?" Brittany replied moving closer to him so they were practically nose to nose.

Instead of a reply Alvin tipped his head up a little and planted a quick friendly kiss on her forehead, "that's it, that's all I'm gonna do" he said with a smile making her giggle. "Are you allowed to go outside?" he asked getting a new idea.

"Alvin… even if I wasn't, why would I stay inside on such a beautiful day" Brittany replied with a smile.

Knowing he would get an answer like that he reworded his question, "what I meant is, would it be harmful for you to go outside" Alvin said restating his concern.

"I don't see why it would be… after all fresh air and sunshine never killed anybody" she said with a small smile.

Smiling back at her Alvin stood up from the bench and held out his hands for her to grab, pulling her to a standing position he helped support her. One of the medications she was taking had a habit to cause her to become dizzy when she stood up too fast. The dizzy spells could range from mild to severe sometimes severe enough to cause her to partially or even fully blackout, and they could last anywhere from a few seconds to a few minutes. Being a more severe attack she teetered and began to fall backward. Faster than gravity could pull her down, Alvin caught her before she was able to hit the hard floor. Setting her back down to a sitting position he waited for the spell to pass before sliding his hand under her knees, positioning his other hand against her lower back he lifted her up cradling her in his arms. "Thank you Alvin", Brittany smiled up at him as he carried her towards the door.

"You're lighter than I thought" Alvin commented with a grin as he carried her across the room. The chipette snorted lightly at his comment about her weight, "you really know how to flatter a girl, don't you?" she replied with a hint of sarcasm in her tone.

"I get that from all the girls" Alvin said with an air of pride, "don't ruin the moment" Brittany warned.

"Right" Alvin said as he carefully walked down the stairs with the chipette in his arms.

Being careful to not alert the elder lady in the kitchen Alvin snuck out the front door with Brittany in the hopes that Miss Miller wouldn't notice the chipette missing from her bedroom. Walking down off the porch he headed around to the side of the house and sat down under one of the large trees, still holding Brittany but resting her on his lap. Sighing gently Brittany slid herself off his lap to sit next to him on the cool grass resting her back against the trunk of the tall tree, "thank you again Alvin".

"For what? I haven't done anything" the chipmunk replied

"For starters, you carried me all the way out here… you didn't have to do that, and more importantly, you're here right now… you're here for me; you've been here for me when I needed somebody the most" she replied looking upon his face with a very grateful expression, "what else could I ask for besides a friend that's always here for me?"

"I don't know…what else do you want, what do you want the most?" Alvin curiously

Brittany shrugged as she thought about this, "I want to runaway… far away, I want to leave this life behind and start over so I can live happily ever after" the chipette replied in a dreamy but hopeful tone as a smile overtook her face as she thought about this prospect.

Alvin smiled as well as he nodded, "well, we could but I don't think we would get very far because I don't have any money".

"Not now silly" Brittany laughed, "I mean when we're older"

"Oh… yea I knew that" Alvin said "we should do that then".

"And that's what makes use perfect friends" Brittany said happily, "even if you're not sure you can really make my wish come true you make it come true here" she said pressing her hand to her chest over her heart, "any of my other friends would have degraded the idea 'don't be stupid… stuff like that only happens in fairy tales'".

Knowing he couldn't leave well enough alone he had to let his ego get the best of him, the chipmunk grinned, "and they would probably say, 'you're running away with Alvin… oh we're so jealous'". Brittany giggled, and playfully punched him in the shoulder causing him to chuckle in reaction.

As silence began to fall between the two chipmunks Alvin began to think about several different things all with the common denominator of Brittany. Taking a moment he put all of them together in his mind and smiled down at Brittany as he began to think of a song. Reaching down he began to lightly tap a beat on his knees that corresponded with the song he was thinking of, getting the beat started he began to sing.

 _"I saw her yesterday  
And I never felt a feeling like the one I felt today  
And now she's taking over me  
I've never met anyone like you  
Cause I never could find the words to write you_

 _She's been on my mind (she's working overtime)_  
 _She's got perfect reasons_  
 _Says she loves to talk to Jesus_  
 _I think I believe her when she says_  
 _Life can be so simple if we'd all just learn to pray_

 _She's got every little thing I wanted_  
 _And it still feels just like the day it started_  
 _I'll say goodbye to the broken-hearted_  
 _And I could never express the way I felt before tonight_

 _She sits there all alone_  
 _She's reading from a chapter that she sometimes calls her own_  
 _And now she's taken over me_  
 _This girl I once rejected_  
 _Has now become the girl of my dreams_

 _She's got every little thing I wanted_  
 _And it still feels just like the day it started_  
 _I'll say goodbye to the broken-hearted_  
 _And I could never express the way I felt before tonight_

 _She's not an ordinary girl_  
 _I see it in her eyes_  
 _I'm just an ordinary boy_  
 _God must have heard my prayers last night_

 _She's been on my mind (she's working overtime)_  
 _She's got perfect reasons, says she loves to talk to Jesus_  
 _I think I believe her when she says_  
 _Life can be so simple if we'd all just learn to pray_

 _Every little thing I wanted_  
 _And it still feels just like the day it started_  
 _So say goodbye to the broken-hearted_  
 _And I could never express the way I felt before tonight_

 _She's not an ordinary girl_  
 _I can see it in her eyes_  
 _I'm just an ordinary boy_  
 _God must have heard my prayers last night"_

As Alvin finished singing the last verse of the song he let his gaze fall upon the chipette's face, specifically her soft ice blue eyes. Reaching up with his index finger Alvin gently pressed against her nose in a playful gesture causing Brittany to giggle and without saying a word she leaned over and kissed his cheek.

Letting his cheeks blush a bright red he replied to her nonverbal compliment, "I'm glad you liked it" he replied slowly as he let his head slowly fall to the side to rest against hers. The two friends remained as such under the tree conversing over small talk and stuff of the like for several hours. Before they knew it dusk was starting to settle in over the neighborhood taking the place of the warm afternoon sun leaving with the cool chill of evening. For Alvin the slight change in temperature was no big deal he barely even noticed the slight chill in the air but Brittany's struggling immune system left her vulnerable to cold. As they continued to carry on their conversation about music and singing Alvin felt her body quake briefly with a shiver that she tried her best to hide. After the second body shaking shiver Alvin decided to silently call it a night, without saying anything to her he stood up and stretched the muscles in his back and arms that were stiff before he crouched back down to her level. Not waiting for her to try and stand on her own Alvin scooped her back up into his arms like he had to bring her outside and began to carry her towards the warm comfort of the house.

"Where are we going?" Brittany asked, her voice heavy with sadness because she feared she already knew, as he began to walk.

"Back inside" Alvin replied slowly.

Brittany sighed in slight sadness, "I guess we better… it is getting chilly out here".

Hearing the immense sadness in her voice over the most trivial idea of merely going back into the house brought sorrow to the chipmunk's heart. This sorrow caused him to stop walking for only a moment before he came up with an alternate idea, hopefully an agreeable compromise that she would be content with. Stepping over the top step onto the porch the chipmunk moved over to the porch swing that resided at the far end by the light fixture that was mounted on the wall just over the swing. Setting her down on the swing he explained that he would be back momentarily before he disappeared into the house.

Brittany waited on the porch for about 5 whole minutes, as she checked her watch she wondered what he could possibly be doing. After a minute or two more she was about to attempt to see what was taking him so long but before she could move he reemerged from the house carrying a warm thick blanket in one hand and a hot mug of tea in the other.

"For you" the red capped chipmunk said with a cheerful smile as he handed the chipette the warm beverage, "green tea, slightly sweetened… just the way you like it".

Brittany was surprised and very grateful that he remembered what type of tea and how she liked it, "thank you Alvin" she thanked him after taking a short taste, "it's perfect".

Before sitting down he took a moment to gently wrap the blanket he had brought out around her back and shoulders. Very accepting of the extra warmth the chipette drew up her legs and tugged the blanket around tighter as he sat down beside her.

Taking another sip of her herbal drink the chipette sighed lightly, "you know; evening is probably my favorite time of the day".

Although he probably already knew why he was curious to know if he actually knew so he inquired, "why's that?"

Taking in a long deep breath through her nose taking in all the sweet smells she carefully thought about her reply, "it's just the way everything feels… everything feels at rest. The air smells fuller, sweeter… it's cooler, but generally not too cold… it's just an overall pleasant time of day".

Nodding his understanding and agreeance he took a moment to look around, what she had said was mostly why he figured she liked the evening. He mostly liked the evening because it was almost time to sleep, one of his favorite hobbies, if sleeping could be considered a hobby. "Evening is pleasant… especially this one" he replied softly as he continued to let his eyes wander around his surroundings taking in everything that was seeable.

Returning his gaze back to her, he found her staring into her drink as if looking for answer to a complex question, the resolution to an unsolved puzzle but was still not finding it. Continuing to practically stare at his friend he became lost in thought trying to figure out what she could possibly be thinking so hard about.

With the previous conversation all but dried up the auburn haired chipette stared down into the mug that contained her warm beverage as if contemplating something… something important. _'I should tell him something'_ she mused silently in her mind as she wrestled with the idea. Slowly biting her lower lip, a thoughtful tick that she had, she began speaking, she was not sure why, she really did not want to say anything but she felt this compelling urge to offer up some information.

"Did you know that Philadelphia has the second best children's hospital in world?" Brittany asked with a very thin smile, almost forced.

Honestly, Alvin had never given that prospect any thought what so ever, he had no reason to, "no… I didn't know that" he replied gently as he slowly shook his head, he could not help but wonder why she was telling him this… what purpose did it serve if any? Maybe she was just sharing her knowledge? But to what ends? Was it significant in some way? Probably not. Alvin's brain quickly re-categorized the new information as more or less useless and shoved it to the back of his memory as unimportant.

After Brittany had shared that piece of knowledge she took to pondering why exactly she even mentioned it. It really was not of any importance to Alvin, why would he care? Her mental journey took her around and around as she tried to figure out why she felt compelled to share such information. Although not of free will her mental travels were cut short as her body suddenly felt the need to let her know she was tired by forcing her to let out a long yawn. Recovering from the involuntary action she found it hard to keep her eyes open and let them slide shut to relieve the heaviness she felt in her eye lids as she let her head rest against the back rest of the swing.

Observing these actions, Alvin knew it must be time for her to go to bed; it had been a long and pretty eventful day for her in her current state of being. Taking point on moving her back to her bedroom the chipmunk stood up from his seated position and moved in front of her. Extending his hands for her he gave her a quick nod, "bed time Britt".

As she took his hands she nodded her agreement. Using his grip on her hands he slowly pulled her to a standing position being care to not pull her up to quickly as to give her a dizzy spell.

His maneuver was a success; he got her standing on her own two legs without her lapsing into a fit of dizziness. Although she was shaky on her feet with his support in the form of an arm wrapped around her middle back, while she used his shoulder to steady herself the duo was able to make it up the steps and into the chipettes' bedroom without incident.

Not wanting to deprive her of the precious sleep she needed, after depositing her by her dress so she could get changed Alvin began to head for the door only to be stopped by his friend. "Alvin…" she called out in a small voice just loud enough to grab his attention.

With his attention redrawn to the chipette the red capped chipmunk spun around on his heel to face the auburn haired chipette who was addressing him. Seeing that she had his attention she smiled at him, "good night Alvin".

Nodding quickly he returned the salutation, "good night Britt".

"Will you be by tomorrow?" she asked hoping for an affirmative response which he did indeed give.

"Like always… directly after school" he said with a wide smile.

"I suppose I'll see you then" she said as he once again began heading for the door.

Reaching the door way the chipmunk stepped through shutting the door behind him saying as he did, "good night Britt, sleep well". Without waiting for any response he finished shutting the door and made his way out of the house and onto the street where he began his walk back to his own residency.

Every time he left her, even knowing he was returning the very next day he could not help but feel a void opening wider and wider every single time. The feeling was impossible for him to describe, it was a longing, a needing, a hole that needed to be filled but it was only fillable with one thing and one thing alone, her, Brittany Miller.

As this strange feeling seemed to overtake his thought process he tried to figure out why, what could possibly be causing this feeling? _'Maybe, it's because she's not feeling well and I don't want to leave her alone… I want to help her?'_ he contemplated this idea for quite some time. Was that truly it? Did he just feel sorry for her because she was sick? The prospect of feeling sorry for her, for some reason unknown to him churned his stomach, _'no… I don't pity her, that can't be it'._

' _Perhaps it's just because we're best friends… I have a longing to be with her. Is it natural to feel that way about your best friend?'_ This question seemed to hang over him as neared home, if this was the reason, which made sense; was it weird that he had an almost emotional craving to be with the pink clad chipette?

Coming up the path to his front door the chipmunk sighed loudly as the continued to think about this question, _'you know what, no, it's not weird, we're best friends… that's the way best friends are supposed to feel about each other… inseparable under any circumstances… just like we are'._

With the utmost conviction in his new found belief of best-friendship he allowed that train of thought to pull into the station to let off its excess passengers easing his mind on the matter. With that concept out of the way he would be able to sleep easy at least tonight knowing where exactly he and Brittany stood in their friendship.

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 _ **A/N: There you go chapter 9, I know it may feel like I'm just spinning my wheels on this story a little bit but the plot is thickening, slowly but steadily. In the next couple of chapters is where the plot really takes off and escalates quickly stay tuned and be ready. Again I hope you enjoyed this chapter so go ahead and drop me a line, I love hearing from you guys!**_

 _ **Oh, and quick disclaimer I do not own any rights to the song used in this chapter titled "Every Little Thing", all the rights belong to the artists "Hawk Nelson".**_


	10. Things We Go Through

_**A/N: I know, it's been a long time, two days short of a month, I'm sorry I've been busy, but don't worry we're about two thirds of the way done! So yea enjoy this chapter and don't forget to review, I love hearing from you fellas!**_

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As the days passed by rolling over into weeks not very much changed, the idea of Brittany being kept in house to recover shifted, as least in Alvin's mind, from being atypical to being the standard. Her absence at school was no longer mentioned and discussed by the teachers and faculty or by the students either. It was like she was completely erased from the public society. This change did not occur overnight so no one really noticed the change in attitudes. Even from her mostly bedridden location tucked away in her upstairs bedroom Brittany knew she was slowly being forgotten about. At the moment being out of sight and out of mind did not perturb her; it was how they would react when all of this was over when she was no longer plagued by illness that preoccupied her thoughts. Would they continue forgetting or would their thoughts be rekindled? Would they avoid her or accept her?

She knew it was futile to worry about such trivial matters when she had more imperative concerns to fret about however. Ones that demanded her attention daily, nearly every waking minute, sometimes however she choose to not worry about _those_ problems because they were exactly that, problems. Fortunately for her an escape from her problems and worries came every afternoon in the form of a red clad chipmunk. Continuing to stare blankly at the text scrolling across the pages of the book she held on her lap the chipette could not help but think about her friend… her best friend. He was certainly more than a friend, her other friends came to visit her a mere few times since she had become ill but Alvin was there every day and even some nights, he was there for her whenever she needed someone the most. _'What's the difference I wonder?'_ Was it the simple addition of the word _'best'_ before _'friend'_ or was there actually more too it?

What made a friend, a best friend? Perhaps it was just the addition of the word, to most that was probably the case but to Brittany it was more. Brittany thought of friendship being like a cactus and best friendship being like an evergreen tree. She saw friendship like a cactus not because it was a painful plant but more so because it can grow even in the harshest environments. With the cactus being the friendship she saw the persons involved as the two things a cactus needs to survive, sunlight and water. One person can carry a friendship (the sunlight) while the others takes a passive back seat (the water), although both are necessary to survival a friendship can survive lopsided. Just like a friendship, you can have a friend who may not necessarily be your friend in return.

Best friendship on the other hand was a more delicate matter in Brittany's eyes; she saw this type of friendship more as an evergreen. With the right combination of sunlight and water the tree (the best friendship) flourishes, but if you take away the sunlight the tree drowns and if you take away the water the tree withers and dies much like a best friendship would if one of the people involved did not share the same feelings as the other.

Luckily Brittany's and Alvin's tree was in full bloom and healthy, Brittany knew this and was pleased by it. Somehow she knew her best friendship with Alvin was in a good place, she no longer needed to question it or worry about it. As her thoughts concluded she realized her mind had drifted, letting her eyes refocus on the book in her lap she sighed heavily. Stealing a quick glance at the clock made her smile; school was out so Alvin would be over soon. Closing her book she placed it on the night stand and slowly forced herself to stand, she was still very shaky on her feet but she refused to let that stop her. Being careful not to stand up to fast as to give herself a dizzy spell she trudged her way over to her mirror to brush her hair and change her clothes incase Alvin would be so kind to help her outside. Her timing was perfect, after all she had the last month or so to practice it, no sooner had she finished getting ready and made her way to sit down on the windowsill bench did she hear the front door open and her best friend and sister enter the house.

…

Over the course of the next couple of weeks Brittany's condition over all seemed to ebb and flow as did her symptoms, some days they seemed worse while on others they seemed much better. This was probably in direct correlation to her increased amount of trips to the doctor's office, as well as the ever changing regiment of medicines she had to take to help her feel better. As those weeks played along Alvin felt his hopefulness surging and faltering with her symptoms, he found it hard to stay positive that everything was going to be alright while his friend was at the doctors two sometimes three times a week but he tried his best to keep hopeful. The biggest agitating factor that kept his hopefulness on its rollercoaster ride was his belief that his friend was hiding something from him, he could not place exactly what she was not telling him but he knew there must be something. Being honest with himself he did realize he only had a sketchy eavesdropped conversation as evidence that she was hiding anything. He also knew that showing his hand and telling her about what he heard could jeopardize the sacred bond of trust they shared as friends, and he was not willing to risk losing her or her friendship again. So he decided to block out what little he knew, ignoring it as if it never happened, repressing it as if it were nothing more than a bad memory, an event of the past that he would not let dictate his future.

Starting directly after the conclusion of the tests she had to undergo, Brittany began finding herself in, a new doctor's office at least once a week to reevaluate her condition and the medicines she was taking for it. After a while it seemed as if with every visit they would remove one medication and add two more. To help raise her spirits and help her recover on an emotional and mental level, Alvin continued his daily routine of school in the morning Brittany's house in the afternoon, although being a sworn hater of routines, Alvin lived for this one. At the current point in time, his life purpose was to be there for his friend in her time of need.

As time and doctor's appointments passed however Alvin became more inquisitive of her actual condition and recovery knowing that by now she must have some knowledge of what ailed her, but when confronted with questions on the issue, Brittany would either dismiss the question or just change the subject. Although frustrated that he could not get any answers about her condition he refused to let those feelings of contempt and frustration dictate his attitude towards her especially now when she needed him the most.

In the middle on the tail end of the month of May, only a few weeks from the end of school, on a warm bright sunny day Alvin, Simon, and Theodore plodded along on their walk to the intersection to meet Jeanette and Eleanor like they always did, but today turned out much different than they ever thought it would. As they neared the intersection it became apparent to the three brothers that unlike the last 2 months where they only met up with two of the chipettes, there were now three chipettes again. Alvin, who was already naturally in front of his brothers picked up his pace significantly in the form of a fast jog to reach the trio of chipettes quicker. Drawing to a stop Alvin was stunned with surprise to confirm his disbelief that Brittany was once again with her sisters, he was aware that she was doing much better thanks to the medications she was taking but he was still stunned to see her there, and going to school none the less, "Brittany? What are you doing here?"

Realizing how surprised he himself was, Alvin wondered if this was what she was keeping secret from everyone, her return to school and possibly a normal life after being bedridden for just over 2 months. It would explain the conversation he overheard taking place in her bedroom but would not explain the downtrodden emotions he heard from within the room that very same day. Hoping this was the big secret she was keeping he tried to stay positive about the entire situation.

"Going to school" Brittany replied in answer to his question, "the doctors said I could go back if I wanted to but I was to avoid anything to strenuous… like gym class".

Although she looked and obviously felt a lot better it was still apparent she was suffering from a serious problem but it was also apparent she was receiving treatment for that same problem. It was no secret either that Brittany despised going to school with a burning passion but when the opportunity arose to go back and retake what normality was left in her life she jumped at it. Going back to school, for her at this point, was not for educational purposes or to hold up any principles, her sole purpose of returning to school was her last ditch effort to replace some normalcy to her life that had been recently kicked on its side.

"It's good to have you back… we missed you Brittany" Simon said happily as the sextet began their walk to school.

"Yea who else would we listen to complain all lunch period about math class" Jeanette put in with a loving smile.

"Oh I don't know, I think Alvin bore that torch pretty well" Simon replied casting a glance at his older brother.

Brittany chuckled at this, she was well known for hating the subject of math, but luckily for her even though she had been put under medical house arrest she was still able to keep current on all the math concepts they were learning thanks to Alvin using his homework as a distraction piece to get her mind off of her illness in the early weeks of her sickness.

Due to Brittany's still lingering condition the group had to take it easy on their walk to the school building. The bulk of the group would routinely out distance the pink clad chipette and Alvin, who had become accustomed to the slower saunter, but the others would have to slow their pace to keep the group together, keeping this slower than usual pace they made it to school just in time to get to their first class before the bell went off, signaling the beginning of not only the class but the school day as a whole. The entire school day seemed to pass without a hitch, with her sisters and friends supporting her it was easy for Brittany to avoid any strenuous activities that might be harmful to her health. For both Alvin and Brittany the school day passed quite quickly but for each, different reasons were the cause, for Alvin it was the pure excitement of having Brittany back at school because it was a step in the right direction towards returning to a more normal life. For Brittany it was the excitement of being the first day back among the world of the living, figuratively.

Leaving school behind them another day the six chipmunks left the building and began their walk home. "I can't believe I'm saying this but… it felt good to be back in school" Brittany sighed, although the medicine she was taking was helping her symptoms she was still very weak causing her to walk slower than the rest of the group. Have spent nearly every moment of free with her, Alvin was used to this new pace but the others had a difficult time readjusting to the chipette's slower stride putting the other four a decent distances ahead of both Alvin and Brittany.

Being in front, Simon noted the pace of the eldest chipette and slowed his pace bringing the group back together, "seeing as you've been trapped in your house for the last two months it's only reasonable you would enjoy any interaction outside of the home environment" the bespectacled chipmunk theorized.

Brittany nodded her understanding of his statement, as silence fell upon the group Jeanette spoke up to break the silence, "how about we go home with the boys to do our homework and study together? As long as Dave doesn't mind of course"

"Ooh…I'd like that… anything to keep me out of the house a little longer" Brittany said excitedly.

Simon nodded with a slight shrug, "I doubt Dave would have a problem with that".

Upon reaching the Seville house the six chipmunks greeted Dave cheerfully. Smiling back down at them the man nodded, "hey fellas! Brittany, I'm glad to see you back up and around again" he said his warm smile widening.

"Thanks Dave, it feels good to be back" she said cheerfully before heading upstairs with the others to complete their homework and study. Leaving Dave to call Miss Miller and inform her he would have the girls over for dinner and most likely a late evening.

Finally, things were more or less back to the way they should be at least that's what Alvin thought as he sat on the floor of his bedroom with his two brothers and three closest friends. Although some studying did happen it was a rarity, most of the evening was consumed by idle chatter about a wide array of topics. Having so much fun as a group again even while working on their homework none of them wanted to see the evening end, especially Brittany. Leaving the room momentarily to fetch a glass of water to aid her taking her regiment of evening medicines, she returned after completing that task but stopped in the doorway and looked on to her sisters and friends sitting in a lopsided circle talking and laughing with one another. Letting out a light sigh she smiled softly as she locked this moment down deep in her heart, casting a memory of pure happiness that she knew would stay with her forever, seeing her sisters and friends as happy as they were was probably the one thing that brought the most joy to her heart she could not help but smile. Capturing the atmosphere she preserved the feeling linking it with the mental images of their group, losing herself she began to stare blankly at the cheerful sight letting their laughter mute her hearing.

"Hey Britt, are you ok?" Alvin's voice floated to her ears from somewhere beside her, the sound of his question broke her from her miniature trance. Having been so lost in her own mind she did not see him stand up and walk over to her, not realizing how close he actually was to her; she whirled around suddenly to face him but ended up brining herself nose to nose with the red capped chipmunk. Responding to the sudden awkwardness of being so close they both took a quick step back separating themselves from one another. "Yea… I'm fine" she said smiling shyly as her cheeks began to blush a rosy color.

Neither Brittany nor Alvin knew why this was so awkward or embarrassing for them considering how close they have grown, especially recently within the past 2 months. It was possibly because their siblings and friends were there and witnessed it or maybe because it was because it was an accident and not intentional but for whatever the reason may have been both chipmunks pulled back and stared at the floor shyly.

Hiding his discomfort of the situation a little better than she did, Alvin nodded as he rubbed the back of his neck in the form of an awkward tick before walking back over to the group with the chipette right behind him. Taking their seats among the group once more they rejoined the conversation, but got some curious glances from their siblings and friends who silently watched the scene unfold before them.

The evening study group that the chipmunks and chipettes had formed that night ended up becoming a standard weekday tradition for next few weeks until school ended for the year in the beginning of June. Much like all of the kids their age the chipmunks and chipettes were immeasurably delighted when school let out for the summer. The ending of the school year let them embark on their own adventures; Simon had a tendency to spend his time working his experiments in his lab in the basement. Jeanette would either help Simon or could be found with her face buried in a book somewhere out in the fresh air and sunshine. Theodore used the time to work in his own lab, the kitchen, designing new recipes or mastering others for summer cuisine. If not helping Theodore in the kitchen with his endeavors Eleanor could be found playing soccer or almost any other sport down at the park, with anyone who would dare challenge her skills and abilities. Under normal circumstances Brittany would be all over the map, embarking on adventures in fashion, singing and exploration, this year however, Brittany found herself taking it easy. Her exploration zone for a while was contained in her yard and would sometimes include an occasional short walk around the neighborhood. On more rare occasions she would venture to the park but those trips were limited due to her condition, which at the beginning of June after school let out seemed to slide slightly back downhill. For Alvin summer would usually mean a mixture of none stop video games coupled with long hours outside exploring with Brittany, but this year was obviously different, the end of school this year meant he could give Brittany his undivided attention, especially now that her condition had slightly worsened. Taking her on daily walks around the neighborhood sometimes to the park he kept the chipette company.

…

One day in the beginning of July, Alvin departed from his home into the dry heat of the California evening. Unlike most of the other days where he felt carefree and happy today he was conflicted, he had to make an important decision but was unsure of how he should decide the right course of action. Arriving at Brittany's house he attempted to hide his confliction upon stopping in front of the big yellow Victorian. In Alvin's mind Brittany already had enough on her plate she did not have to worry about his problems as well, she needed to focus on herself. Looking up onto the porch he found the chipette sitting on the railing waiting for him. Pausing briefly he gave her enough time to come down the stairs before they started walking down the sidewalk together on their daily stroll around the neighborhood to help build back up her strength. "It's beautiful out today" the chipette sighed looking around at the sparse nature around the suburban neighborhood.

Her comment almost fell on deaf ears as it took his brain a little longer to process the statement because of it's distracted state, "uh huh" he mumbled back barely making eye contact or glancing around to see the scenery she was referencing.

Making a puzzled expression at the chipmunk the pink clad chipette brushed it off, shaking her head dismissively. As they continued to stroll along however, Brittany noticed that Alvin continued to be a little more distant than usual and much more quiet, "everything ok Alvin?… You're being awfully quiet" she asked hoping that whatever was on his mind was not too serious and that he would be willing to share his troubled thoughts.

The red capped chipmunk sighed as he lifted his shoulders in a shrug, "it's nothing important… I have to figure something out is all" he replied stalely.

"Come on… don't shut me out" Brittany coaxed rubbing her arm against his in a friendly gesture, "what do you need to figure out?"

Contemplating whether or not he should tell her for a short moment led him to the conclusion that he should, "Dave wants us to perform a couple concerts for a charity organization in the northern part of the state".

Brittany nodded slowly as they took a corner taking them further from home, "is he giving you guys a choice?"

"Yea, he wanted us to unanimously agree one way or the other both Simon and Theodore want to go…" Alvin said letting his voice trail off.

"But you don't want to… and you don't want to be the one person to put the wrench in the cog" Brittany said slowly understanding his dilemma. Something about it however did not seem right to the chipette, so she thought about this for a few moments trying to place her finger on exactly what did not feel right. She knew how much her friend loved to perform for an audience especially at charity concerts; Alvin not only enjoyed showboating but he loved helping people especially when he could use his most prized talent, his music, to do so. So Brittany found it somewhat hard to understand why he just would not say yes and do the concerts.

"I know you love preforming and even more so doing it for charity benefit concerts… so why don't you want to do it?" she asked voicing her question out loud.

"It would be multiple concerts… I'd be gone for about two months" he replied letting his voice soften and lower in volume as he spoke while he adverted his gaze to stare at the oh-so-interesting cracks in the sidewalk, "and I don't want to leave you alone that long…what if something happens?"

Smiling at the sentiment he proposed, Brittany moved her hand closer to his and gently wrapped her fingers around his hand as they continued to walk. "That's sweet of you Alvin… but you should do it, I'll still be here when you get back… nothing's going to happen to me" she said softly leaning her head on his shoulder.

Realizing he was still thinking very hard on it and not coming to a clear decision she decided to push him along a little more, "please do it… do it for me Alvin".

Seeing that request seemed to be conflicting him even more she tried again to push him over the edge into acceptance, "Alvin, I don't want to be the reason you decided not to do this… so for me, please do it" she spoke softly letting a smile crawl across her lips. Meeting her gaze, Alvin smiled as he let out a breath before nodding slowly, "ok I'll do it for you… it's a shame you aren't feeling better though, we could have all went… together".

"Someday… we'll be performing together again… someday" she said softly letting out a sad sigh as she laid her head down on his shoulder as they walked into the park to watch the early July sunset.

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 _ **A/N: Yea…I'm not gonna say much here because I don't want to give away the story so stay tuned I'm going to try and have the next chapter up soon. Peace out!**_


	11. 36 Days

_**A/N: And here's chapter 11, I probably won't update for a few weeks or so because I'll be out of town but I will try to anyway stay tuned and as always read, review and most of all enjoy!**_

* * *

"Alvin, are you ready to go?" Dave shouted up the stairs as he walked from the kitchen to the living room of the Seville household.

"Yea Dave" the man's eldest son called back as he practically sprinted down the steps wearing his backpack. Tossing the his backpack near the front door the chipmunk hurried into the living room following his father, "when do we leave Dave?"

Double checking the time before answering the man glanced at his watch briefly to reconfirm what he already believed to be true, "about 2 hours or so".

Without hesitation Alvin jumped at the opportunity to pose the question that was burning inside him since this morning after he forced himself to stop procrastinating and actually pack, "can I go over to Brittany's for now and you could pick me up on our way out of town?"

Not thinking about it the man began speaking, "why do you want to-" but he caught himself quickly, "sure, Alvin that shouldn't be a problem".

Beaming brightly the chipmunk spun around and tore off for the door, exiting the house he ran down the sidewalk knowing he had little time to spare. Pulling himself to a stop out front of Brittany's house, he quickly made his way into the house and up the stairs to find Brittany seated on her windowsill bench, a place she much enjoyed sitting and could usually be found more recently.

The sounds of someone entering the house and walking up the creaky old stairs of the large Victorian clued the chipette in to the fact that there was in deed someone else in the house with her besides her guardian. Turning her head slightly to see who the footfalls coming down the hallway belonged to she was somewhat surprised but happy to see it was her best friend.

"Alvin, aren't you leaving for that charity tour today?" the chipette asked as he neared her.

Still wearing a broad smile the chipmunk nodded, "yea… but I wasn't going to leave without saying goodbye".

Brittany looked at him with a questioning look, "Alvin you said goodbye last night, I assumed that would be the last time I'd see you".

Shrugging this comment off the chipmunk sat down beside her, "I had some time to kill so I figured I would come over and say goodbye again before heading out".

Chuckling at this the chipette shook her head as she fought back a smile, "you're impossible Alvin, you know that?"

The chipmunk nodded without missing a beat, "that's what Dave tells me every time he grounds me".

"He's right you know" Brittany poked back shaking her head, changing the subject Brittany decided to ask her friend a question, "how long did he give you?"

"Eh… 2 hours or so" the chipmunk replied brushing off the thought of a time restriction.

The given time frame gave Brittany a flurry of emotions, she was happy she had another 2 hours with her best friend while at the same time she felt the sadness of it being only 2 hours. Letting out a breath she smiled, "wanna go out back for a little bit?"

Having no quarrel with this idea the red capped chipmunk nodded as he stood up to assist the chipette in standing before leading her out of the room. Going down stairs the duo exited the Millers' house through the kitchen door that led to the backyard. After walking around the small suburban yard for a little while the two chipmunks settled down in their favorite spot beneath the large oak tree residing not far from the house.

Finding the silence that had fallen between them somewhat peaceful and pleasant Brittany took in a deep breath of the hot summer air as she closed her eyes and tilted her head back to let it rest against the tree. Remember they probably did not have too much time left together before Alvin had to depart on his shorty charity tour; the chipette began humming the tune to a song she knew and wanted to sing.

Hearing the chipette humming the melody prompted Alvin to remove from his pocket his harmonica; pressing it against his lips he began playing the instrument to the tune of the song. Coming back around to the beginning of the tune Brittany ceased humming leaving Alvin to carry the tune while she sang the first verse.

" _Next to me, next to me  
you are always next to me  
when I'm needing you,  
needing you the most  
holding on, holding on  
for my dear life I'm holding on  
to you alone  
cause you alone are my hope"_

The chipette took a very brief pause to regain her shortened breath before starting to sing once more.

" _And I've had front row seats  
to your faithfulness  
a spotlight shining  
on your promises  
so I can't deny  
cause I've seen it a thousand times_

 _I can count you  
I can count you  
like a parachute when I fall  
a lifeline when I call  
you come through  
and prove it's true  
I can count on you  
I can count on…"_

Anticipating another pause by the chipette, Alvin managed to drag out a few notes to give her time to recover so they would stay in harmony. Brittany noticed his efforts and smiled at him gratefully before starting to sing once more.

" _Every word you said to me  
you hold the future I can't see  
so I believe no matter where I go  
you give me_

 _Front row seats_  
 _to Your faithfulness_  
 _a spotlight shining_  
 _on Your promises_  
 _so I can't deny_  
 _cause its written all over my life_

 _I can count You_  
 _I can count You_  
 _like a parachute when I fall_  
 _a lifeline when I call_  
 _you come though_  
 _and prove it's true_  
 _I can count on You_  
 _I can count on_

 _You when my strength's not enough_  
 _you when I'm looking for love_  
 _you when I'm standing on the edge_  
 _and I've got nothing left_

 _I've got front row seats_  
 _to Your faithfulness_  
 _a spotlight shining_  
 _on Your promises_  
 _and I can't deny_  
 _you've shown me time after time_

 _I can count You_  
 _I can count You_  
 _like a parachute when I fall_  
 _a lifeline when I call_  
 _You come though_  
 _and prove it's true_  
 _I can count on you_  
 _I can count on you"_

Dropping off the last note Brittany ceased singing as Alvin stopped playing his harmonica, "I will always be able to count on you Alvin" she said smiling happily. The red capped chipmunk had a feeling she was singing about him but he did not want to jump to that conclusion to fast. Not sure what to say to her comment he merely wrapped his arm around her shoulder and pulled her in closer.

"I missed hearing that voice of yours sing" he spoke softly, nearly a whisper in her ear causing her to smile even wider.

"I missed singing like that" Brittany replied softly just before they were joined by Dave who had just exited the kitchen into the backyard to collect his son.

"Hey Dave" Alvin greeted with a false air of cheerfulness, although he willingly agreed to perform the charity tour there was still a part of him that wanted to stay with Brittany and not travel to northern California but he knew he had too.

Dave greeted both chipmunks in turn before turning to his son, "Alvin, it's time to go" he prompted kindly knowing how hard it must be for his son to leave his best friend/rival/singing partner behind.

Alvin nodded in acknowledgement but asked a slight favor as well, "do I have time to help Brittany up back up to her bedroom?"

Dave took a moment before answering the question, not because he had to think it over the answer was obviously yes, they had time. He was more surprised Alvin would ask to do that, he knew they had grown close, a lot closer than he had ever thought they would but he still did not expect him to be that caring of her, "sure Alvin, I'll be out in the car".

As Dave turned and walked away, Alvin stood up and extended his hands down for Brittany to hold while he pulled her from her sitting position to her feet so they could walk into the house. Walking on flat surfaces was pretty easy for the chipette but stairs was another story, due to the weakness she felt it was difficult for her to maneuver herself up steps so she required the support of another person, in this case Alvin. Reaching the bedroom door Brittany stopped and faced him, "I'll be fine from here Alvin, you should go… your brothers and Dave are waiting for you".

The chipmunk nodded slowly before he pivoted his body around to depart. He no sooner took one step before she called out for him stopping him in his tracks and forcing him to spin around to face her once more. Taking a step or two to close the distance between them the chipette leaned forward and planted big kiss on his cheek making him blush lightly, "thank you Alvin…thank you for everything".

Alvin was not sure why but he detected something strange in her voice, it was slight and foreign, the micro nuances in her voice sounded final as if this was the last time they were going to see each other or something. He knew that was absurd though, he was going to be back in a few weeks a month tops so he would see her soon, besides he planned on keeping in communication with her via phone and writing while he was gone so he was not sure why she sounded so final. Needing to know what she meant by her statement he asked her, "what do you mean?"

The chipette shrugged off his question mostly but dignified it with a response, "you've done so much for me, I don't want you to think I don't appreciate everything you've done for me these past months".

Alvin shook his head at this, "you don't have to thank me for that and you never will, I will always be here for you Britt, that's what friends are for".

The chipette smiled broadly at this motivating Alvin to pull her into a firm hug, accepting the embrace the chipette placed her chin on his shoulder and enjoyed the warmth from his body, closing her eyes momentarily she reopened them and sighed, "Alvin… you should probably go, you don't want to keep your family waiting".

Nodding to this he slowly released the chipette from his embrace, "I'll call you every night" he stated softly as he dropped his arms to his side.

Brittany smiled at his, "I'd like that a lot" she replied happily cuing Alvin to slowly depart, silently nodding his head he took a few steps backwards away from her before turning to walk away hoping she would call out to him again preventing him from leaving but she did not. Exiting the house the chipmunk found Dave and his brothers waiting for him just as Dave said they would be right outside.

Saying nothing Alvin climbed into the back seat of his father's car where his brothers were already seated and waiting for him join them. Simon was propped in the corner between the seat and the door reading a book while Theodore sat in the middle seat munching on a bag of pretzels. Noticing how his older brother continued to stare out the back window at the large yellow Victorian as they drove away Simon tried his hand at reassuring him that everything was going to be ok. "She's going to be fine Alvin, we're only going to be gone for a few weeks, before you know it we'll be back home" the bespectacled chipmunk said caringly.

Alvin knew the probability of his brother Simon being right was up around 100% so hearing this prospect from him eased Alvin's mind a little but he was still going to miss her. Nothing Simon could possibly say would help him with that; it was just something he felt deep down and nothing he said or did could help. For Alvin it was something of a new feeling, it felt sort of like worry, a feeling he had become quite accustomed to feeling recently, but this new feeling was bitterer. When you worry about someone there's the perk of getting the chance to see and talk to that person and know that they are alright. When you miss someone, it is worse, because you miss them, you are not around them so there is no opportunity to see them or speak to them to quench the feeling. Letting out a deep breath the chipmunk tried to come to terms with this new emotion but was failing miserably.

Trying to take his mind off the absence of his friend he began asking about some of the details concerning their mini-tour that had not yet been disclosed to him.

"So since we didn't rent a van this time I suppose the instruments will be provided for us?" the eldest chipmunk asked trying to preoccupy his thoughts.

Dave nodded as he stole a glance at the rearview mirror to look at his son, "that's correct, they're going to loan us the instruments, I did take the liberty of bringing with us a few of you fellas favorites though, like your favorite guitar".

Alvin was relieved to hear this, he was afraid Dave may have left it behind. Although Alvin was not picky as too who's or what instruments he played, having his favorite guitar along as well as his harmonica would make this trip a little more bearable for him.

Barely letting the information about the instruments have time to sink in the chipmunk posed another question, "what's the exact number of performances we're doing?"

Dave was silent for a moment or two before answering, "we still have to work that out with the organizational manager" the man replied, "but it won't be as long as the 2 months we previously discussed, we will be back in august, we're only going to be gone about 36 days including travel".

"Good… that's not too long" Alvin sighed trying reassure himself of that same point before asking yet another question, "have our songs been decided yet?"

Dave shook his head from the front seat, "they've made a few requests but other than that I'm going to leave that up to you three. Our first performance is tomorrow night so you don't have a lot of time".

A short deadline to decide on songs for a concert was not a problem for Alvin he always had songs in his back pocket for every occasion, being a children's medical charity organization he knew they would need songs with a good beat and some with a touching message. Which brought up another question for the chipmunk. "Are we raising money for the organization or are we preforming for the children?" he asked curiously.

"Both" Dave replied with quickly, "at each location we will be doing two concerts, one free of charge for the children at the institution then one public concert to raise money for the cause".

It seemed to be a bit different of a strategy but Alvin liked the idea, so they could cater their song choices to the children then offer a slightly different selection to the paying crowd to boost fundraising.

"Out of curiosity Dave, where is our first stop?" Alvin asked still not knowing their destination.

"San Francisco" Dave said back, "we should be there in a few hours".

Letting out a long breath that came out sounding more like a sigh Alvin let his head flop back against the seat and let his eyes slide close. Having all the information he needed thus far for their concerts he decided to pass the time of the long car ride the fastest way he knew, sleeping. Although sleep did not come all too easy for the red capped chipmunk he eventually did pass out into a peaceful slumber letting the journey north pass him by. Before he knew it Dave was rousing him from his sleeping state because they had arrived at their destination.

...

Keeping his word Alvin made it a point to make contact with Brittany at least once a day somedays more depending on their practice and concert schedule. For some reason though he had trouble getting in contact with her for the past few days, she would answer his phone calls but she seemed to be ignoring his video calls. Continuing to be persistent payed off for the chipmunk however and after about 3 days she finally started answering his video calls again as well.

"Dave says we're almost through with our concerts and should be home soon maybe a week or so" Alvin said happily to the chipette on the other end of the video call he was using a laptop to execute. The chipmunk was laying stomach down on his hotel room bed, his elbows down on the bed with his face resting against his closed fists to help hold up his head, a laptop in front of him offering him a live video feed of his friend.

"That's good to hear Alvin" Brittany said forcing a smile on her face as she tried desperately to prevent herself from falling asleep.

Alvin quickly took note of this behavior and wasted no time in addressing it, "tired?" he asked somewhat surprised that she would be _this_ tired, he knew here current state of health was taxing on her energy but she seemed more tired than usual.

"Yea" she practically whispered in return, "it's been a long day… I had to go for more tests"

Alvin nodded his understanding, "good news hopefully?"

Unfortunately to Alvin's dismay she shook her head before she shrugged, "sorta… they've stabilized most of my medications, so that should help me feel better".

"But that's only helping you _feel_ better… what are they doing to make you better?" Alvin asked, this was a question that had been nagging at him for some time now. He had asked this question before in more cryptic forms but never in such a direct manner before. The directness of his question nearly caught Brittany off guard but she had an response ready for him, "it's a process Alvin, they're still trying to figure out how to make me better… don't worry though I'm sure very soon I won't be sick anymore" she told him forcing to smile at him through her obvious fatigue.

Silently nodding his response Alvin decided to change the subject and end the conversation, "get some rest Brittany… we'll talk again tomorrow" he told her flashing her a comforting smile.

"Ok Alvin" she whispered very much grateful for the leave he had granted her, "good night".

"Sleep tight Britt" he said before closing out of the online video communication application. Closing the laptop lid he moved the computer to the nightstand beside the bed before rolling over to try and sleep himself. As he laid there he could not help but think about his conversation with his friend, it was nothing about the actual conversation or the words used, it was the surroundings. The area the video camera picked up around the chipette, that was bothering him. There was something about it that made it seem unfamiliar; it really did not look like her bedroom. The walls seemed a different color, and even the little bit of the bed that she was sitting on looked different to him. These thoughts bothered him probably a little more than they should have but he had trouble shaking off the feeling that something might possibly be wrong. _'It's probably just how it all looked on camera… I'm sure, if something would have happened or changed she would have told me… I'm her best friend after all'_ he tried to rationalize it for himself before he slowly drifted off to sleep.

Simon stood beside his two brothers listening intently to Dave briefing them about their final concert and how it was going to work. Simon continued to listen while he eyed his older brother somewhat suspiciously; Alvin was slouched in a chair to Simon's right staring off into the distance obviously distracted by his thoughts while he aimlessly plucked at the strings of his guitar. Once Dave had finished speaking to them the man departed to check on another aspect of the concert leaving the boys alone.

"Alvin" Simon began readjusting his glasses; he waited to address his brother to make sure Dave was outside of earshot, "did you hear a word Dave said to us?"

Simon waited for a few moments but got no response; "I don't think he heard you Simon" Theodore put in observantly as he watched his two older brothers.

Simon barely turned to his younger brother to address him, "I gathered that Theodore".

Reaching out to get his brother's attention the blue clad chipmunk wrapped his hand around the neck of his brother's guitar rendering it unplayable. Alvin continued to pluck at the stings mindlessly for a few more moments before finally stopping and looking up at his brother's hand. Tracing the hand back to its owner the chipmunk locked eyes with his brother for a moment before the red chipmunk dropped his gaze causing the other to drop his hand from the instrument.

"Alvin did you hear what Dave said to us?" Simon asked restating his earlier question.

The red capped Seville nodded, "sure… what did he say?"

Simon put the palm of his hand against his forehead and sighed, "so no you heard nothing… Alvin is there something bothering you; you haven't been acting like yourself all day?"

The older of the two chipmunks thought for a moment before shrugging, "I don't know… I've got this weird feeling and I can't seem to shake it" he said distantly as he continued to stare blankly at the floor.

Simon looked at his brother skeptically, usually when Alvin got a feeling it was never good, usually it would lead the boys into trouble but he had to ask. He had to know what was troubling his brother and throwing off his game, "what type of feeling?" Simon questioned hoping this would not lead him and Theodore into trouble behind their older sibling.

Alvin mouthed a few words as he thought about what exactly to say, "I don't know honestly… I feel like something is wrong but I can't put my finger on it" he said finally turning his deep blue gaze towards his younger brother.

Almost knowing for certain without having to even ask Simon knew this feeling had something to do with Brittany but he was not sure what it could be. To the best of his knowledge she was safe at home in her bedroom Alvin had just spoken to her the previous night and probably would tonight as well. So he was not sure where this feeling could be coming from, "I'm guessing this has to do with Brittany?" he asked just to confirm his belief.

This question gained a nod from his brother and prompted him to ask another question, "what does it feel like is wrong?"

Alvin struggled to find the correct words to state his concern, because even saying it in his head it sounded ridiculous. "It… feels wrong… all of it" Alvin said slowly, "I can't put my finger on it but it feels like… something is wrong".

Simon continued to stare at his brother somewhat confused but blinked a few times breaking that stare, "Alvin maybe you're getting this feeling that something is wrong because Brittany is still sick, so something is wrong" Simon said taking a shot in the dark hoping to at least pacify his brother for a while.

Rejecting this prospect Alvin shook his head vigorously, "let me try to explain it the best I can"

Simon nodded and placed his hand on his chin in a thoughtful manner as he listened to his brother. Alvin took a deep breath and tried to explain, "you know that feeling you get when someone you know is close by… even though you cannot see them you still know?"

Simon nodded unsure of where he was going with his idea but prompted him to continue, to which he did, "well I up until a few days ago, I felt as if everything was fine, but suddenly one day I started getting this feeling as if Brittany was no longer near" Alvin explained.

Simon raised an eyebrow at this, "maybe because that's because she's all the way back in LA while we're up here somewhere north of San Francisco?"

Alvin quickly dismissed this with a shake of his head, "this feeling only started a few days ago" he said softly.

Simon quickly thought back over the past few days and tried to figure out what could have possibly changed to shift his feelings like this. After a few silent moments of thought Simon snapped his fingers, "a few days ago isn't that when you had radio silence with Brittany… you couldn't seem to get a hold of her for several days?"

Alvin nodded his answer prompting Simon to explain his theory, "you probably just got a little paranoid after you couldn't reach her, it put psychological distance between the two of you from your perspective spawning these new feelings of excessive distance between the two of you".

Alvin toyed with this thought in his mind, he was not quite sure what Simon meant by 'psychological distance' but it did seem to be a valid theory. On top of that Simon presented it with his factual tone of voice, whenever Simon would present information to Alvin in that particular tone it was usually correct which would usually annoy Alvin but today right now he found it very comforting believing that Simon was in deed correct about this matter.

"You really think so?" Alvin asked hoping for final confirmation from his ever so smart younger sibling.

"I do" Simon replied matter-of-factly.

Alvin let go of a short chuckle as a small grin crept across his face, he believed Simon was right about why he was having the feelings but knowing why did very little to ease them. Alvin continued to seek comfort in knowing that within the week he would be home and with his best friend once more.

Seeing his brother's mood lighten up a bit made Simon happy, letting out a breath he placed a hand on his older brother's shoulder, "you gonna be alright?"

Alvin nodded slowly, "yea Simon I think I will be"

"Ok" Simon said with a toothless grin before leading his young brother away to leave their older sibling alone with his thoughts to sort them out.

Sighing out loud the chipmunk slouched back into his chair and began plucking away at the strings to his guitar. As he continued to pluck at the strings a very fitting song began to formulate in his mind and he began to turn the random plucking into an organized tune.

Getting the tune started on his guitar he began singing,

" _Gone away far from home, the weekend's over  
Let's pack up and start again  
Twenty days on the road, just left Sacramento  
With sixteen days to go_

 _I just called my friend to tell her that I miss her_  
 _I just wrote my girl_  
 _Man I can't remember the last time I kissed her_  
 _Soon I'll be at home with my best friend_  
 _After thirty-six days on the road_

 _Lights go down the noise has faded_  
 _We'll leave this town anticipated_  
 _Soon we'll be back on the road again_  
 _All is lost, but not forgotten_  
 _One by one the fights we've fought_  
 _And soon we'll be back on the road again_  
 _For thirty-six days_

 _We turn around, face the crowd_  
 _We're starting over_  
 _This time north of L.A._  
 _Once again here we are_  
 _It's a new beginning_  
 _I'd leave this life any day_

 _I feel so alive, though part of me is gone_  
 _And this life I lead, is the life that I've dreamed of_  
 _Since I was the age of twelve_  
 _Now I'll sing with all this is within me_  
 _After thirty-six days on the road_

 _Lights go down the noise has faded_  
 _We leave this town anticipated_  
 _Soon we'll be back on the road again_  
 _All is lost, but not forgotten_  
 _One by one the fights we've fought_  
 _And soon we'll be back on the road again_  
 _And soon we'll be back on the road again_  
 _Soon we'll be back on the road again_  
 _For thirty-six days"_

Alvin finished singing then strummed out the last few notes of the song before pressing his hand against the stings of his acoustic guitar over the opening to silence it faster. Letting out a long breath he began to feel better, "I'll be home soon Brittany…" he whispered softly to himself making a smile a creep onto his own face.

* * *

 _ **A/N: Huh oh! I used two songs in one chapter! Goodness me what was I thinking? How could I? Well it's pretty simple these were the two songs that inspired the chapter and they were able to be input into the story pretty easily so yea. Got a problem with it? Deal with it. Nah just drop me a line if you don't like all the song in the story I might do something about it, I will certainly consider it if it bothers someone. But anyway go ahead and review, hope you guys and girls enjoyed :D**_


	12. A Million Miles Away

_**A/N: Hey-O I'm back, I know it's been a lot longer than I intended it to be before updating, stuffs been happening and I've had next to zero time to work on anything other than school and work. Anyway as my fellow writer MRAY 4TW pointed out (and I thank you for doing so) to me, I forgot to put a disclaimer on my last chapter for the songs used, so here it is, both songs "Count on You" and "36 Days" both belong to the band Hawk Nelson, I own nothing. This way I don't mislead you guys into believing I'm actually talented enough to write my own songs, lol and so I don't get sued.**_

 _ **Any here's the chapter please read and review and enjoy!**_

* * *

Trotting down the steps of his house Alvin paused at the front door long enough to grip the knob and quickly pull the door open. Without hesitation the chipmunk continued through the doorway and on his way pulling the door shut behind himself as he walked. Failing to falter in his stride his mental state seemed to pause and take in his surroundings as he continued to mindlessly walk to his destination. The cooling autumn evening air made was a welcome change to the summer heat that he had been feeling the past few months. Although summer was Alvin's favorite season the heat could be become a bit overwhelming, and he freely welcomed the change in temperature. Flaring his nostrils the chipmunk drew in a long deep breath as if cleansing his longs of the previous summer air and filling them with this fresher cooler air.

Alvin and his brothers had been out of town for the last couple of weeks performing at several charity concerts in upstate California and had just returned home. Having gotten back a few hours ago Alvin was eager to see his friend, his best friend that he was unwillingly forced to leave behind while he was away. Stopping for just a moment at the corner, just long enough to check for traffic and take in another deep breath before moving on.

Coming to a stop in front of the large Victorian house, he stared at the building with a peculiar expression; there was something different about the house today. Maybe it was the absence of Miss Miller's car that was usually parked right in front of the large brown garage door, or maybe it was all the downing autumn leaves that were beginning to strew themselves about the front yard, or maybe it was because the house was unusually quiet and dark both on the outside as well as the inside. No matter the reason Alvin shrugged off these odd feelings and walked up to the door and gave it a brisk knock then waited. He was accustomed to waiting a few minutes to let any one of the occupants to cross from one side of the large house to the other but after waiting a an unusually long five minutes without anyone coming to answer the door the chipmunk started to let those early feelings of suspicions that something was amiss to reenter his mind. Raising an eyebrow the chipmunk moved to the side of the porch and looked into the house through the living room window and was shocked, almost horrified by what he saw, the house was almost completely empty, the large furniture was covered in white sheets and all the small personal effects of the Miller family was gone.

Shaking his head in disbelief Alvin gripped the top of the railing and hopped over off of the porch, landing on the soft dirt he ran around to the side of the house where the large tree stood rooted in the side yard. Looking up at the window next to the tree for just a second he began to climb, reaching the branch he always used as a bridge from the tree to the window, he quickly climbed out onto the limb that extend to the chipettes' bedroom window which they always left unlocked mostly for this purpose. Placing his hands on the cold glass panes he tried to lift the sash but found the window locked. Overcome by irritation at his given situation the chipmunk slammed his open hand against the glass in frustration, out of his frustration however came an idea. The chipmunk dug around in his pocket until he retrieved a small pen knife, he opened the knife and inserted the blade in between the top and bottom section of the window and ran his knife across opening the latch holding the window closed.

Pocketing his knife he threw the window open and climbed over the sill into the bedroom. The chipmunk glanced around the dark room, and saw that the only things left in the room where the chipettes' beds and their dressers, the majority of their personal belongings had been purged from the room. Alvin slowly walked around the room looking around for anything that could help point him in the right direction. Curiously the boy started moving his feet in an almost dazed fashion towards one of the dressers, the one that belonged to his best friend. Staring at the top of the dress her gingerly lifted a single index finger and ran it through the dust that had settled atop the dresser. Not knowing for sure how much dust there was he knew it had to have been collecting for the last few weeks or so. Coming to this realization as he rubbed the dust between his index finger and thumb, this prospect only angered him, forcefully rubbing the dust off his finger onto his hoodie the boy stormed out of the room and down the stairs, with his frustration and anger boiling over the top Alvin bolted straight out the front door. Not caring to slow down he leapt right off the porch to the sidewalk below, bypassing the steps; hitting the ground the chipmunk regained his footing quickly than ran back to home. Reaching his house he burst through the front door and found his brother Simon entering the living room, his face buried in a book as he walked from the steps to the living room.

Not sure what to do or what to say Alvin stopped his brother by grabbing his arm but before he could speak he needed to catch his breath from his sprint back to the house. Seeing this Simon snapped his book shut and placed a hand on his brother's shoulder, "take a breath Alvin then tell me what happened" Simon coaxed knowing something had to have happened to get his older brother this riled up. After all, Alvin left to visit Brittany and was gone for no more than 30 minutes before returning breathless and confused.

Finally beginning to get his breathing back under control the older brother began to speak, "they're…gone…all…of…them" Alvin said in between pants of air.

Raising an eye brow at his brother in confusion Simon pressed further, "who's gone?" He already had a pretty good idea of who his brother was speaking of because he knew where Alvin was heading, but Simon left nothing to chance and always wanted pure facts.

Pausing for a second Alvin managed to catch most of his breath, "Brittany, her sisters and Miss Miller, they're all gone, their house is empty everything is covered, packed up or gone".

Simon was thoughtful for no more than a moment, he was very unsure of how to proceed with this situation, he believed his older brother, he would gain nothing from lying about such a thing but he did not know what to make of the information given to him for it was somewhat unusual and did not make any sense, "we should ask Dave… maybe he'll have an idea of what's going on" the blue clad brother offered hoping to help his brother find some answers.

Silently agreeing that this was the best option, the brothers went in search of their father for answers regarding the whereabouts of their friends. A quick search of the house brought the boys to the music room where they found their father seated at his piano. Taking a step to the side Simon let Alvin take point in the discussion seeing as he had the most information about this peculiar situation. After gaining his father's attention Alvin wasted no time in bringing to light his concerns about his best friend and her family "Dave… the chipettes are gone-" the red capped chipmunk started but was cut off by his father as if he had expected the question.

"I know" Dave said softly looking down at his sons from where he was seated at his piano.

The flurry of emotions that was occurring within Alvin quickly spiked then dropped before roller coastering all over the place. The red capped chipmunk was astonished but relieved at the same time to hear that. He was relieved that Dave might actually know something but astonished that Dave did actually know something and did not tell him. Right now, however all he cared about was getting answers "what? Where did they go?" he pressed hurriedly.

"Miss Miller wasn't very specific when I spoke to her at the beginning of the summer, they had to temporarily move to the east coast because of Brittany's condition" Dave said softly hoping it was not too much for the young chipmunk to comprehend all at once.

In pure astonishment Alvin opened his mouth to speak but no words emanated from his lips, _'why wouldn't anybody have told me?'_ he asked silently. "Why didn't anybody tell me?" Alvin asked very frustrated and extremely annoyed at the principle that nobody cared enough to mention this drastic move to him.

"Miss Miller and Brittany too, said they didn't want you to know until you got back from the charity tour, so you could focus on what was important at the time, I was going to tell you before you headed over there today but you left before I could" Dave replied gently, hoping his son would understand the logic of the decision.

But Alvin did not understand any of it, how could he? He felt betrayed by everyone he trusted including Brittany, how could she not tell him something like this? Dragging his mind back to his father and his statement he took a moment to look into his father's eyes, "my friend" Alvin began hotly, "my best friend… who is now on the other side of country is what is important". Saying nothing more Alvin turned to leave.

Turning to face his brother's back Simon called after his older brother, "Alvin…where are you going?"

"To find her" Alvin replied curtly

"No you're not" Dave replied sternly standing up, "Miss Miller and Brittany as well, asked that no one know, they felt it would be detrimental to her recovery to have too many unnecessary interactions, and they asked that the move be kept secret specifically from you". Taking only a step forward he caught up with his son and stopped him by placing a firm hand on his son's shoulder. Still determined but not wanting to disobey his father Alvin stormed off up the stairs to his bedroom. Slamming the door shut behind himself he collapsed to a sitting position letting his back fall against the door. The rollercoaster of emotions Alvin had been feeling for the last six months just turned into a massive train wreck. Feelings of love, betrayal, confusion, sadness, hurt and pain weighed heavily on his brain, sitting on the floor Alvin tried to make sense of the situation but it only ended up hurting him causing him to begin to cry softly.

Simon remained with Dave in the music room for several more minutes, "Dave… why would they do that?" the bespectacled boy asked curiously looking up to his father who was about to sit back down.

The dark haired man shrugged with a sigh, "I don't know Simon, it's what Miss Miller said Brittany wanted".

Simon nodded his understanding, "he did have a right to know… everything he went through for her, he deserved to know" the boy stated softly, more so voicing his thoughts on the matter rather than stating an opinion.

Getting barely a response from his father Simon slowly turned and made his way up to his bedroom where he knew he would find his older brother. Stopping outside the door he could hear his brother's soft sobs, the sound of which slowly broke his heart, he loved his brother dearly, sure he could be a handful and get on his nerves but nobody deserved this kind of pain even Alvin. Shaking his head the boy reached up and turned the knob but could not push the door open; realizing his brother was probably sitting against the door Simon tried a new approach to gain access to the bedroom.

"Alvin…let me in, I want to talk to you" the boy coaxed gently.

In response to his statement the sobbing seemed to cease and the door swung open slowly revealing Alvin standing in the door way, his eyes red from crying and his cheeks stained from the tears. Simon could see the pain in his brother's deep blue orbs and written all over his face, this only helped Simon feel worse for him and his situation.

Entering the room Simon took a seat on his bed and gestured for Alvin to sit across from him with a sad smile. Alvin complied and sat with his back against the foot of the bed, his knees pulled close to his chest, Simon remained silent knowing Alvin would need a few moments to vent his frustrations.

"I don't get it" Alvin began angrily, "why wasn't I told? Why did Dave keep this from me?"

Simon sat quietly and shrugged, he knew Alvin was not actually looking for answers and was merely venting at this point, the time for answers would come later.

"What did I do to deserve this? Did I do something wrong?" Alvin practically shouted fighting through the tears. "I thought I was being a good friend…" he stated dropping the volume of his voice as he let his head hang, holding his face in his hands.

Simon knew he had to intervene at this point and put a few answers to his brother's questions, "Alvin you didn't do anything wrong and you've been a great friend and I'm sure Brittany knows it to".

"Then why didn't she tell me about this?" Alvin asked then switched gears suddenly as a curiosity overtook him, "did you know?"

Simon quickly shook his head at that, "no Alvin, you were the first to bring it to my attention, I'm sure she had her reasons for not telling you… they may not be good reasons but they are reasons".

Alvin took in a deep breath through his mouth, "what should I do Simon?" the red capped chipmunk asked suddenly.

This question failed to take Simon off guard, he had anticipated this question from the start; Alvin would occasionally seek advice from his younger brother in delicate situations. Although he expected this question the blue clad brother did not have a prepared response, so he took a moment to think about his answer.

"I think you should follow your heart, Alvin" Simon replied softly locking eyes with his older brother, seeing that his brother was very thoughtful about this Simon continued, "what is your heart telling you to do?"

Alvin's eyes narrowed with purpose, "find her… I need to find her".

Knowing his brother was definitely speaking from his heart he nodded, "then I'll help you".

Taken completely off balance by this statement Alvin stared at his brother, his surprise scribbled all over his face, "really? I was expecting you to tell me how much of a bad idea that was".

Simon shook his head slowly, "I don't say this often Alvin but you were right, you had every right to know and you deserve to be with her… now, let's figure this out".

Both boys quickly clambered off the bed to stand, "what do you know?" Simon asked hoping to compile some facts about the sudden move.

Alvin thought hard about the last several months but kept drawing blanks on everything, none of the information he had seemed to be relevant to the situation. Shaking his head he looked at his brother with sad eyes, "I got nothing Simon" he said.

Simon nodded in acknowledgement, "ok, Alvin go to the Miller's house and look around, look for clues of where they could have gone, maybe something will jog your memory".

The red capped chipmunk nodded his agreement, "thank you Simon" he said pulling his brother into a hug.

"You're welcome Alvin, now go find them" the blue brother said returning the hug before they broke apart.

Knowing he could not leave through the front door without Dave stopping him or asking questions, he walked over to the window at the far side of his bedroom, sliding it open he climbed down the tree that was just outside the house. Reaching the ground he took off at a run for the house that used to be the Miller's place of residence. Upon arriving he walked right up to the front door that he had left unlocked when he left no more than an hour ago and walked right into the house. As he walked around the empty downstairs looking for anything he began to hear rain begin to pitter patter on the roof.

Searching the entire first floor of the large home he found nothing quickly getting discouraged by this he walked up the stairs and into the chipettes' old bedroom once more hoping something would come to him. Walking around the room, looking in draws and closets seemed to yield nothing, feeling very deflated now he sat down on the windowsill bench and adverted his gaze out the bay window just before a flash of lightning lit up the sky followed by a loud thunder clap. _'I can't find anything'_ Alvin thought angrily.

' _That's because you are looking but you aren't thinking Alvin!'_ the voice from deep within him said suddenly reappearing after lying dormant for some time. Taking a deep breath the chipmunk heeded the voice's statement and began to try and calm his mind, _'has she ever mentioned a location?'_ the voice asked prompting Alvin to dig back into his memory.

 _Flashback:_

 _Both Alvin and Brittany were seated on the porch swing at the far end of the Miller's front porch, seated at an angle with his back against the corner of where the arm and the back of the swing met, with his arm resting on top of the rear of the swing just watching the chipette he was with sip at her beverage. Brittany sat a mere foot or so from him wrapped in a blanket to help protect her from the late evening chill that seemed to only bother her in her current state of illness._

 _With the previous conversation all but dried up the auburn haired chipette stared down into the mug that contained her warm beverage as if contemplating something… something important._

" _Did you know that Philadelphia has the second best children's hospital in world?" Brittany asked with a very thin smile, almost forced._

 _Honestly, Alvin had never given that prospect any thought what so ever, "no… I didn't know that" he replied gently as he slowly shook his head._

 _End Flashbak:_

"Philadelphia… Pennsylvania" Alvin said out loud, "she's in Philadelphia… but Philadelphia is almost as large as Los Angeles… I'll never find her".

' _You can't give up Alvin… she needs you right now more than ever don't let her down'_ the voice said just before a flash of lightning lit up the room followed by a loud rumbling thunder. Glancing out the window with a determined expression plastered on his face Alvin got back up and ran down the stairs. Knowing he had to update his brother he entered the kitchen and grabbed the phone off the wall. Dialing his home number he really hoped Simon would be the one to answer the phone or this would be all for nothing.

After the other end rang several times a voice finally picked up, "hello?" Simon's voice said over the receiver.

Breathing a sigh of relief Alvin updated his brother on the information he believed to be true, Simon was silent for a moment before saying, "Philadelphia huh, come on home Alvin and we'll figure this out".

Alvin had another idea however, "no Simon, there's no time for that… I'm gonna go find her, I'll be back… eventually". Before his brother could protest Alvin hung up the phone and ran out of the kitchen and out the front door into the pouring rain and raging storm heading due east. His plan? Go east until he found Brittany, so far that was the extent of any plan Alvin currently had, besides not having the time he needed to formulate a plan nor having the emotional stability as well as the mental capacity at the current moment he ditched the idea of a plan an kept running as fast as his legs could carry him.

Everything happening around the boy would have usually caused him to head home but he pressed on through the driving wind and pouring rain that the storm was bringing with it. The lightening flashed and the thunder rolled but this did little to deter the red clad boy from his objective. Although Alvin was athletic and a strong runner he still grew tired after sometime of running. Having no idea how far he had ran he collapsed breathlessly to his knees on the wet sidewalk as the rain continued drenching him and the earth below and around him. Breathing heavily, the chipmunk pushed himself back to his feet and he continued running, slower now but still as fast as his body could go.

Coming into the outskirts of the city the chipmunk celebrated his small victory internally as he began following signs for the airport, it was not much but it was enough to up lift his spirits and renew his adrenaline. Taking shortcuts down alleys and through parking lots the chipmunk reached the airport in a few hours of brisk walking and slow jogging.

By the time he reached the sidewalk of the airport the storm had slowly started to ebb away, thankful for the break in the rain the now exhausted chipmunk slunk into the terminal to concoct the next phase of his plan. The next part of his plan had him purchasing a ticket, boarding an airplane and landing in Philadelphia in a few hours. This idea suddenly crashed burned in a huge fireball as he came to the startling and crushing realization, that he did not have enough money. Having no way of purchasing a ticket the chipmunk pooled his options, return home and come back with more money? No, that would take way too long. Or the only other option was to improvise and get a flight for free. How he was going to go about this feat he was unsure but he started looking around for ideas and options.

After watching a number of people load large suitcases onto the conveyor belt to take their luggage down to the belly of the plane for the flight Alvin came up with what he believed to be a foolproof plan. The chipmunk made his way around the main terminal checking every unattended suitcase for a piece of luggage bound for Philadelphia. Coming across a suitcase large enough to fit himself in directly outside the cafeteria he checked the tag and to his joy it had a tag that bore the name of his destination city. Glancing around quickly to make sure no one was looking, he quickly unzipped the luggage and removed a decent amount of the suitcases contents to make room for himself. Placing the clothing items right around the corner the chipmunk slipped into the baggage and zipped it back up from inside. Now came the waiting game, he knew the suitcase would be leaving eventually, he just did not know when so he waited as patiently as he could in his current situation.

No more than a few minutes later the owner of the suitcase came out of the cafeteria, taking the last swig of his coffee he tossed the cup away before turning back to his suitcase. Crouching down the man tore off the old baggage tag and placed a new one on the handle. Extending the handle the man wheeled his suitcase over to the baggage drop and left his suitcase there to be placed in the cargo hold of the aircraft.

From inside the suitcase Alvin was obvious to this critical change but at this point it would make little difference he was already committed.

Leaving a small section of the suitcase unzipped Alvin was able to check on his progress as he traveled from the terminal to the plane. Once he was sure he was in the bottom of the plane he used the remaining contents of the luggage to bed down and keep himself warm. The upper levels of the atmosphere where the plan would be traveling became quite cold in the unheated cargo area below the plane. At one point after shivering for nearly 45 minutes the chipmunk shed his wet outer wear and ventured out of the suitcase and into the cargo hold. Searching the other luggage he found a blanket and returned to his own suitcase much warmer now than he was before. Once warmed by the blanket, sleep overtook the exhausted chipmunk, little did he know but in the hours to come he would need those precious hours of sleep for this would prove to be a long journey.

* * *

 _ **A/N: And there you have it, I'll be sticking with this story thick or thin, better or worse, when I started writing on here a promised to never leave a story unfinished, and I'll keep that promise it might just take me a little longer than you guys or I hoped it would but it'll get done. Now I must return to drowning in my textbooks and school assignments. Till next time.**_


	13. Long and Lonely Road

_**A/N: Here another chapter, chapter 13 to be precise, there may be another one in a few days as well. So keep your eyes open.**_

 _ **Read, Review and Enjoy.**_

* * *

"Brittany… are you going to be alright?" Jeanette asked softly as her sister sat in her hospital bed weeping gently. "No I'm not going to be alright" Brittany snapped back weakly, "I should have told him… he deserves to know where I am especially after everything he had done for me, what I did to him was wrong."

Jeanette sighed as she moved closer to her sister who was propped up in her hospital bed, "keeping it a secret from him was probably the best idea in this situation… if he knew the truth it would devastate him, there's no way he could have uprooted himself to come with you… you did what you thought was right".

Wiping the tears from her eyes Brittany nodded in acknowledgement of what her sister was saying, "yea… well I was wrong" the red head forced back a few tears, "he's probably already figured it out and is already devastated, at least if I would have told him then his heart would have slowly cracked and crumbled instead of being smashed into millions of pieces suddenly when he finally finds out" Brittany replied her fragile voice becoming weaker with each word as she cried "and I would have been there to help pick up the pieces like I should have been… like a good friend".

Jeanette sat herself at the foot of her sister's bed and tried to comfort her elder sister, "you have been a good friend to him, and him to you, you can't beat yourself up over this… you thought you were doing the right thing".

Brittany understood what her sister was trying to say but it still bothered her, "I feel so guilty… he should be here with me".

"Brittany please try not to overwrought yourself" her sister said softly "I'll call Simon and see if they can send Alvin over here, if that would make you feel better"

"Yes, please… thank you Jeanette" Brittany replied her weak voice cracking slightly out of happiness

Jeanette nodded and left Brittany's hospital room and walked down the hall where they had public phones for people to use. The chipette quickly dialed the Seville household's number and waited for them to pick up. "Hello?" Theodore asked over the phone, "Theodore" Jeanette said somewhat relieved, "can I speak to Simon please".

"Sure" Theodore replied, a few moments later Simon's voice replaced his brother's over the phone, "hello?"

"Simon" Jeanette said happily, "Jeanette… how's Brittany?" Simon asked worry lacing his voice.

"As best as can be expected I guess" Jeanette replied, "listen… I need you to send Alvin to-"

Jeanette was quickly cut off mid-sentence by the boy which caught her off guard with what she said, "Philadelphia Pennsylvania? When were you guys going to tell us Jeanette?" Simon quizzed almost angrily.

Jeanette closed her eyes and sighed, she feared this response, sure it was the wrong decision but there were reasons… important reasons. "Simon I'm sorry about this" she said her voice nearly a whisper.

"You girls are like family to us, why would you do something like this to us? We care about you… all of you" Simon said letting his voice trail off into a hint of sadness.

Jeanette waited a moment to make sure he was finished speaking before she spoke again, "are you mad Simon?" she asked almost worried what the response would be.

She could hear the boy on the other end take a deep breath, "I'm not mad Jeanette, just disappointed".

Knowing that having Simon disappointed in you was worse than having him mad at you Jeanette mentally kicked herself for not mentioning something to him about this. But what was done was done and she would have to live with it, she was obeying her sister's wishes and she felt no shame in that she just wished it would have turned out a little better for everyone involved. Drawing her attention back the conversation she sighed again, "can you send him out here then, Brittany's been asking for him?" she asked meekly half afraid of just about any response.

Nearly forgetting what she had asked at the beginning Simon rubbed his chin in thought, "he should have been there by now… after figuring out where you guys went off to he followed, given time zone changes, flight time… yea he should have been there by now".

Jeanette grew quickly concerned by this not only for Alvin's wellbeing but her sister's emotional state as well, "oh…I hope nothing has happened to him, if we hear from him we'll let you know… will you do the same".

Simon nodded on his end before he spoke, "yea… I'll give you guys a call"

Knowing he was about to hang up she knew she had to apologize for all of this, "Simon, I'm sorry… we should have told you guys, even Brittany is regretting it now… it was the wrong call… and I'm sorry".

Simon was silent for a moment before he spoke again, his tone was still somewhat downtrodden as if still a little disappointed but it had uplifted a bit. "You did what you thought was right, he stuck by your family" he said in a sincere low tone.

Jeanette let out a deep sigh as she remembered saying almost those exact same words to her sister, and now that she was hearing them she slowly came to realize how much hearing those words did not help her feel any less guilty, thus knowing her sister probably still felt the same way "Yea… talk to you later Simon… I should go" with that said, she barely waited for the boy to reciprocate her farewell before hanging up the receiver.

Pushing back her sadness and disappointment Jeanette put on her best smile as she walked back into Brittany's room. She had to keep up a positive attitude and be strong for her sister especially now that Alvin had gone missing. Stopping briefly at the open door she knocked on the frame before she strode over to her bed, "I spoke to Simon; Alvin will be heading out soon", Jeanette lied hoping nothing bad had happened to the chipmunk in his travels and hoping it was something very basic and easily correctable slowing him down. Mentally kicking herself she slowly turned around to leave the room, she hated lying to anybody especially her sister, but it was for her own good so that made it ok, right?

"Thank you Jeanette" Brittany said weakly causing the brunette chipette to stop in her tracks, turning back around she approached her sisters bedside again, "I love you, you know that right?" Brittany asked gently picking up her sisters hand in her own, "even though I don't show it all the time I still love you very much".

"I know you do" Jeanette said wrapping her arms around her weak sister, "I love you too Brittany".

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

 _ **Several hours prior with Alvin….**_

Alvin was roughly jostled awake as his suitcase lurched forward causing it to tumble down the stack of other baggage it was on. Doing his best to shake off the fall in his confined space he realized that this meant the plane had touched down at an airport. Trying to wait as patiently as he could Alvin waited until he was sure his bag was in the terminal before making his next move. Peeking out through the slightly unzipped bag he checked to make sure he was indeed in the terminal before he finished unzipping his suitcase. At this point in his journey he really did not care who saw him, the owner of the suitcase, security, airport attendants his mind was too preoccupied with his current task, locating his friend in the fifth largest city in the United States. Hoping out of the bag which was a few feet off the ground on a conveyer belt, he hit the tile floor hard and slid to his knees; standing up the chipmunk took a quick look around the terminal. Getting a lot of odd looks and shouts as well as murmurs from onlookers who had watched his exit from his transportation device, the ignored them though. He had no time to waste spotting the doors he started off for them at a quick speed. Bursting through the doors the boy ran out into the open night air where he spotted a cab sitting next to the curb, opening the rear door he jumped into the back seat, he did not have enough money for a plane ticket but he might be able to afford a taxi ride across town, "excuse me sir… what part of Philadelphia am I in?" Alvin asked the cab driver.

"Philadelphia? Son you must have gotten onto the wrong flight" the man said somewhat surprised by the question, "you're in New York City… at the LaGuardia Airport" the man replied turning around slowly in his seat to look at the boy in the back seat.

"No… I can't be" Alvin shouted, "I need to get to Philadelphia"

Knowing how great of a distance there was between New York City and Philadelphia Alvin exited the cab; he knew he did not have the funds for a trip of that length. Almost all the stamina left him with this defeat but he began walking down the sidewalk away from the airport and towards the city of New York anyway. "How do I get there now?" Alvin asked himself out loud as he walked under an overpass. At first he tossed around the idea of retrying his plan again but did not want to waste the time in case it was just a repeat performance of the first flight. He could not afford to end up in yet another random city somewhere; he had to get to his best friend.

Feeling very down about his situation drug his mode to an all-time low and made the chipmunk hardly want to continue. 'Bright side: It's not raining in New York' he thought trying his best to drum up a ray of hope and happiness. Alvin was no stranger when it came to cities; he had been in and out of LA enough that he knew how to navigate a city but New York was different. Los Angeles for the most part seemed to shut down at night and the people would leave the streets and go find shelter in their dwellings. In New York however, it was like the people just did not sleep, even in the middle of the night people were up and about as if sleep was a foreign concept to them that they failed to understand.

Having no idea where in the grand old city of New York he was, the chipmunk decided his best bet was to find shelter for the night and figure out a plan in the morning. Luckily for the chipmunk August on the northeastern coast was still a decently warm month making it easy for the chipmunk to sleep outside without seeking out the warmth of shelter. Finding Central Park the chipmunk climbed a large tree and found a good place to sleep among the branches out of the sight from anybody who would be passing by underneath of him.

XXXXXXXXX

Waking in the morning to not only the bright sun in his eyes but a flurry of noises ranging from vehicle engines to horns to the shouting of people with a wide range of emotions and just about every other sound known to the human race. Stirring awake the chipmunk sat up and rubbed his eyes before stretching his arms and back. Hearing the loud popping sounds from his back as he twisted it from side to side to limber himself up Alvin found himself longing for the comfort of his own bed after spending one night in a suitcase and another in a tree. Successfully shaking most of the stiffness from his body the chipmunk slowly pushed himself to a standing position on his branch. Using the elevation of his position in the tree over the park, the red capped chipmunk slowly let his eyes wander around as to get his bearing. The city surrounding the park on all sides was big and very intimidating to the lone chipmunk but he managed to push those daunting thoughts to the back of his mind, he had a mission to complete and nothing was going to stop him from doing so. Climbing out of the tree he found that even the park was a busy place. Alvin at one point believed he liked city life but this was not the city life he was used to, he much more enjoyed suburban living. Making his way through the park and onto the sidewalk the chipmunk began walking southwest away from the park. Trying to walk on the sidewalk, for the chipmunk was turning out to be a near impossible endeavor. Seeing as he was significantly shorter than just about everybody else in the city the sidewalk goers seemed to ignore the chipmunk's presence, pushing him and shoving him to get by.

As the boy walked still trying to think of a solution to his problem he continued to dodge the other sidewalk goers. As the day slowly seemed to pass on though, the overwhelming foot traffic seemed to ease up a bit, at least for a while anyway. Alvin seemed to pick up on a trend, the sidewalk was busy and crowded in the morning while everyone was trying to get to work but died way during the midmorning hours. Around lunch time the traffic picked back up a little bit but seemed to subside again until around 5 or 6 in the evening when the majority of people started getting off work. After that the foot traffic lightened up a bit but stayed consistent into the evening.

Although it was a very difficult chore with the changing traffic patterns the chipmunk continued to walk for the entire day, stopping briefly only a few times the chipmunk made a few stops to spend the few dollars he had on food before continuing onward. Coming to a stop in the late evening in an almost deserted part of town away from the hustle bustle of down town the chipmunk found a somewhat uncomfortable spot to sit on the cold sidewalk with his back against a hard brick wall of a tall building.

Letting out a sigh as he wondered if this was all worth it he let his head gently fall back against the brick wall. He was so lost in his thoughts he failed to notice the homeless man a few feet from him, who had took notice of the chipmunk and slowly made his way over to him. The man was older, had dirty grey hair and a decently long beard to match, his jeans were torn and filthy as was his shirt, he was also in need of a long shower. The man slide himself a few feet to sit somewhat next to the boy, in one hand the man had a sandwich he had just received from the local friendly deli who would occasionally give free food to the homeless. In his other hand he clutched the neck of a bottle that was shrouded in a brown paper bag.

"What are you doing out here at this hour sonny? Are you lost?" the man asked as he unscrewed the cap off the bottle.

Alvin knew better than to talk to strangers especially someone such as this but at this point he could care less, he was too tired and depressed to care anymore. Shaking his head slowly he responded to the man's question, "eh… sorta I guess".

The man took a long swig from the bottle before turning his attention back to the boy, "how are you sorta lost?" he asked somewhat confused by this prospect.

"I'm supposed to be in Philadelphia" Alvin explained, "my friend is in the hospital there and I have to get to her".

The man nodded, as he tore his sandwich in half, looking at the chipmunk for a brief moment he offered him one of the halves. Alvin tried to turn it down at first, not because he was not hungry, he was famished it he had not stopped for food in hours. He knew that this was probably about the only meal this man was going to get today and did not want to take it from him but after the man remained persistent the boy accepted the food.

"You're pretty far away from Philly sonny" the man said stating a very obvious fact.

Alvin nodded slowly, "I know… that's why I'm not sure if it's worth it"

The man took a bit out of his half of the sandwich before replying, "this girl must be pretty special to you for you to travel all the way from New York to Philly on foot just to see her… she your girlfriend or something?"

Stopping mid-bite at this question the chipmunk's eyes widened to think this over as he chewed the mouthful of food he had. Being so young the prospect of a girlfriend seemed a bit foreign almost alien to the boy, he had never considered their friendship…relationship that deeply. Should this be something he should be thinking about? Just thinking about that seemed to speed up his heart rate; he had no idea how to feel about this. Quickly putting a stop the thought with his usual argument, 'HA! Brittany Miller, my girlfriend, we're bitter enemies!' that's always the argument he would use whenever someone would try to fabricate a relationship between the two of them. 'But we are best friends though. Could there be something more?' he thought to himself, the thought kinda made him happy but it also terrified him to no end. Physically shaking his head he managed to shake these thoughts down a bit.

Turning back to the man who had joined him for dinner, he finally answered the man's question, "nah nothing like that… we're best friends".

The man nodded his understanding, "that's how the best ones start, it's all easy from there" he said with a smile.

Alvin grinned back, the prospect was entertaining as a thought but the boy feared it would never work but he feared the idea that it could work even more. Although it was a fun idea, and made Alvin feel very happy deep inside there was just something very disconcerting about it but he could not place the origin of that feeling.

After Alvin remained silent for a few moments the man decided to ask him a question, "why are you walking to Philly, can't you get a ride from somebody you know?"

Letting out a breath Alvin started the whole story starting back when they were still fighting up until the current moment in time. Ending the story with "and that's how I ended up here" the boy put on a weary smile as he shook his head, "I doubt if it's worth it anymore".

"Why's that?" the man asked taking another drink to wash down the last of his sandwich.

Alvin shrugged, "she's moved on I guess, she doesn't need me as a friend anymore. If she did she wouldn't have moved across the country without telling me and cutting off all communication".

The homeless fellow understood the boy's perspective but he also wanted to help his new young friend, "something you have to remember about friends, young man, is this, we don't all gotta 'em, but we all need 'em, we might not even know when we need them. But they're always there for us even if we don't know we need them".

Alvin blinked at the man a few times; he had a difficult time following the man's logic, "what do you mean?"

The man took another long drink, the content of the bottle was obviously affecting his ability to function, "what I mean is, she may not realize it right now, but she needs you, probably even misses you. You should go to her, that's the only way to know for sure."

Alvin grinned as he nodded his head, "you probably right" he said as he stood up, turning back to the man he extended his hand to him for a shake, "my names Alvin".

The man took the boy's hand and shook it firmly, "friends call me Jack, it's been a pleasure Alvin".

Smiling back at the man Alvin reached into his pocket and withdrew a large pretzel he had come into possession of earlier in the day. Tearing it in half he offered half to the man who gladly accepted the offer and slowly at it, in response the man offered Alvin the bottle he had been drinking from. Hesitating for just a moment Alvin accepted the beverage and took a long swallow, instantly regretting this, the boy quickly handed the bottle back to the man as he coughed down the liquid he had drunk. It was a feeling like none other Alvin had experienced it was a very strong almost natural taste but it was very bitter but warming, he could feel it warming the inside of his body. Coughing a few more times and blinked tears from his eyes, "what was that?" he asked

"Gentleman Jack" the man said naming his favorite alcohol.

That was the first time Alvin had ever tasted alcohol, 'and the last' he thought to himself as he tried to spit the bitter flavor from his mouth. Shaking off the feeling once more Alvin bid the man farewell again and started heading on his way.

Even though the sun had set long ago the boy pressed on his journey; knowing he had about 100 miles to cover on foot he knew he had to push himself forward, earlier in the day he had stopped to ask a gentleman for basic directions to the Philly area so he was able to keep himself on track without straying too far off. Finally stopping sometime in the middle of the night the chipmunk collapsed on the sidewalk out of exhaustion. Falling to his knees the chipmunk let his tired body fall to a laying position on the cool concrete with his back resting against the wall of a building like he had before. Although countless people saw him fall and even more passed by while he continued to lie on the ground, not one person stopped to help him or even ask if he was alright they just ignored him. Unlike the friendly homeless man Alvin had encountered earlier, the boy took note of this that the ones in the city with less to give gave more than the ones who had more to give. Shaking his head at this prospect he laid his head down on the cool sidewalk ready to just give up for the day and give in to sleep right there on the sidewalk where he laid. The chipmunk even began to let his eyes close before someone reached down and shook his shoulder forcing the chipmunk out of his dazed, almost sleeping state. "Son are you alright?" a strong male voice asked as the owner gently rolled Alvin over onto his back.

The red capped boy nodded as he sat up, the owner of the voice was a police officer. "I'm fine" Alvin barely whispered as he stood up with the police officers help.

"What's your name son?" the officer asked, he was an averaged sized fit man, with very short light hair.

"Alvin Seville" the chipmunk replied adverting his gaze from the officer more so out of fatigue than anything else.

The officer took out his notepad and jotted down the chipmunk's name, "where do you live…I'm going to take you home?"

Alvin breathed heavily as he gave the officer his street address, "Los Angeles California" the chipmunk finished.

Hearing what city and state the boy was from made the peace officer stop writing and look down at the chipmunk skeptically, "what are you doing all the way out here?"

Spotting a bench alongside the side walk Alvin gestured towards it "do you have time for a long story officer?"

Nodding his agreement the officer and chipmunk sat down on the bench and the chipmunk retold his entire story for the second time this evening. He told him all about Brittany and where she was now and how he was on his way to see her but got sent to the wrong airport by mistake. After the chipmunk finished his lengthy story the officer was silent in contemplation, "I should put you on a flight back to LA…" the officer let his voice trail off as he looked down at the chipmunk's pleading face. Very conflicted, the officer was not sure what he should do with the boy he had just found, still drawing a blank he shook his head and stood up, "let's start by getting you something to eat, you look starving".

Cocking his head to the side Alvin was unsure if he should go with the police officer, although he knew the man was not going to hurt him he was skeptical because the last thing he wanted to do know was go home, his internal conflict was gone, he was now recommitted to finding Brittany and it sort of sounded like that was the officers plan was to send him home on the next available flight. Seeing his hesitation the officer tried prompting him again, "come on, I've got a few hours left on my shift… you can come with me on patrol too…until I figure out what I should do with you".

Letting his hunger and longing for rest get the better of him Alvin followed the police officer over to the police car and got into the passenger seat of the police cruiser. The officer got behind the wheel and they left so the officer could complete his job of patrolling the down town neighborhood.

A few minutes later found the officer pulling into a diner, the officer brought Alvin inside and got him something to eat, as he watched the chipmunk devour his food the officer pressed for more information, "I'm going to call the police in Los Angeles just so they can notify your family and let them know that you're safe and well" the man said as he removed his cell phone from his pocket.

Alvin nodded and started digging around in his pockets before retrieving a business card he had been given. As the chipmunk held it out the officer took it and looked at it, on the front of the card was a typed message, "If this boy, Alvin Seville is found, detained or arrested for any reason contact my office" under the message was typed, "Sergeant Devon James Bond California Highway Patrol" and had the police officers office and cell phone numbers listed.

Looking at the card in almost disbelief the police officer looked at the chipmunk and shook his head, "are you serious?"

Alvin shrugged and nodded, "D.J had it specifically made for me and said to give that to a police officer if I was lost or in trouble" Alvin replied slowly.

The police officer nodded once in acknowledgement before shaking his head again at the card, dialing the number typed on the card he lifted the phone to his ear. Hearing the click of the phone on the other end being answered the officer greeted with a crisp "hello".

The other end was silent for a moment before the man on the other end began speaking, "Sergeant Bond CHP".

"This is Officer Dixon NYPD" the man began.

Letting his eyes dart from side to side in a confused motion very unsure of why he would be getting a call from across the country at this hour D.J leaned forward at his desk, "NYPD like New York City PD?"

"One in the same Sergeant" the officer replied, "I found you're boy Alvin wandering my streets".

Nodding his head as he closed his eyes D.J sighed, he had ceased to be surprised by the boys antics long ago so getting a call that he was in New York really did not even faze the police sergeant, "yea… thank you Officer Dixon, we've been looking for him, go ahead and put him on a plane home, my department will reimburse you for your expenses".

"Will do Sergeant" the officer replied, before ending the call and pocketing his cell phone. By the time the officer turned his head to face the chipmunk again the seat across from him was empty, "what the-?" the officer began as he got up and ran for the door looking for the red clad chipmunk but he was long gone.

Having overheard from the other end that the officer was going to send him home Alvin slowly and silently got up and left the diner while the officer was distracted with the phone call. Heading back out onto the streets he knew now he was going to have to keep a low profile because now he practically a fugitive. Having a lot of experience with running away from home Alvin knew how the police handle the situation, especially in cities. They panic, they search high and low; some of the bigger city police departments like New York had actual divisions dedicated to finding runaway children.

Knowing he had only few minutes before the officer would call in his disappearance with a pretty detailed description of himself. To combat the new enemy Alvin tried to avoid main streets and people of any kind. Luckily for Alvin most people in the city of New York would not report him even if they saw him out of fear of having to get involved. Trying his best amidst this new obstacle the boy kept heading west, it looked like he would be walking the full 100 miles after all, not to mention dodging law enforcement the entire way. Walking for several more hours late into the night after successfully dodging a handful of police cruisers, the chipmunk slowly began to feel the fatigue return to his body. When the point of the night came when Alvin felt as if he could absolutely go no further, he took refuge in the sanctuary of a local church; hiding himself away from view in one of the far corners the chipmunk had no trouble falling asleep for some much needed shut eye. It was hard work being a fugitive, and he knew he was going to need every minute of sleep he could get for the coming journey.

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 _ **A/N: So a bit longer of a chapter then we're used to with this story but it make's sense to end there, like I said keep your eyes open because more updates are coming :D**_


	14. Friend Like That

_**A/N: And here we are on chapter 14, we've come a long way with this story and it isn't over yet so keep reading! But wait, there's more… quick PSA for all you readers, in the next Chapter's Author Note, that will be chapter 15's Authors Note, there will be some very crucial information regarding chapters 15 and 16 so please be aware and read the A/N! PSA concluded, please read and enjoy the story, and if you like it drop a review, if you hate it drop a review. Get the picture? I really just want to know what you guys think positive or negative doesn't matter to me. Well here it is!**_

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The next couple of days were the same thing, he walked the entire day stopping every so often to solicit food from a generous passerby or an eating establishment employee that would take pity on him and give him some leftovers. Rationing his food as he got it began to make it last longer so in case he had trouble finding something to eat he had back up rations to hold him over. After the first day and half Alvin found the police canvas ebbing away mostly because he was making it out of the big city and into small jurisdiction that could not spare the man power to actively seek for him so they made due by just watching out for him on patrol. This made it easier for Alvin to evade them, since they were not actively searching for him he could disguise himself easier without being noticed. Every night was nearly the same as well, he would find a church that left their doors open for their parishioners and he would sleep in an out of the way corner where he would not be in the way and more importantly where he would not be found. Those couple of days found him in a rural part of the state of New Jersey almost everywhere he looked was farms and fields, although suburban living was more to his liking he probably would not mind living on a farm, it looked somewhat fun. Having stopped not too far back at a gas station to ask for direction he found out he was on course and not terribly far from his destination.

Today was not too bad, it had rained the night before but the sky now was clear and void of most clouds, only a few puffy white blobs floated around in the bright blue sky occasionally blocking the suns warm rays from the earth below. The dirt road the chipmunk was on, which the gas station worker called a "short cut" was riddled with potholes that were now filled with murky muddy water. There was nothing to dislike about today it was nearly perfect, the only thing that could possibly make this day better… _'is Brittany being here with me'_ Alvin thought sending his mood down a bit but it helped to boost his motivation.

The more he thought about that prospect though the more he thought about Brittany, the more he thought about what the homeless man had said to him about his relationship being more than just a friendship with the chipette. The boy continued to puzzle over this for some time, _'how would I even know if we're meant to be more than just friends?'_ this internal question seemed to stump him, _'I'm happy the way things are now… should I change that?'_

As that question filled his mind he remembered how happy of a concept it was to think of himself and Brittany as more, but then he remembered how strange and foreign the idea felt as well. Still very conflicted by this he tried to work though the tangled mess of knots that were his thoughts about this topic. _'I wonder how she feels about this? Maybe she's happy the way we are?'_ the boy thought trying to change his perspective to hopefully gain some insight. As the boy continued to think about this he heard a low rumbling sound off in the distance. Looking up, prying himself from his deep inner thoughts he tried to find the source of the noise, glancing to the south east he found the origin. Towering tall into the sky was a massive white cloud with a dark grey bottom, Alvin recognized this could as one that would bring with it a thunderstorm.

Knowing he should probably seek shelter for the duration of the storm Alvin began to weigh his options, he really did not want to lose the time of hiding out waiting for the storm to pass, it was still midafternoon and he had a lot of ground to cover. Having still not come to a conclusion of what he should do the boy kept walking as the first few droplets of rain began falling. Alvin's oh-so-perfect day was now going down the toilet fairly quickly, _'there's only one thing that could make this day worse'_ the boy thought, but he probably ended up jinxing himself by evening thinking it. Seeing the lone white car heading towards him he feared the worst, _'please don't be the police'_ Alvin thought crossing his fingers as the car rolled towards him.

The rain now had picked up to a steady downfall; as the car neared he could see the word "Sheriff" decaled on the side of the car. As the car continued to near him Alvin knew it was too late to run, it would look suspicious if they had not yet recognized him so he hoped the rain on their windshield would prevent them from seeing him clear enough from them to recognize him.

To his dismay however the call pulled to a stop beside the chipmunk and the driver rolled down his window to speak to the boy. "Hey son… where are you heading?" the sheriff's deputy asked but Alvin ignored him and kept walking hoping they would leave him alone. This was not the case however, from outside the car the boy's keen ears picked up on the second deputy asking the driver, "isn't that the boy the APB is on? The runaway from LA?"

Hearing this Alvin broke out into a run as fast as he could down the dirt road, watching the boy do this in the mirror of the car mad the driver turn his patrol car around and give chase. The farmers' fields that once surrounded the boy now started to give way to dense woods on either side of the road. Knowing he would not be able to out run the car Alvin continued running until he reached then woods then cut a hard right into the dense forest. Stopping the patrol car both deputies got out and gave chase into the woods following the boy.

Having walked all day Alvin was already exhausted, running was no easy task for him right now. Panting heavily the boy ran through the sheets of rain, not letting the loud thunder claps and bright flashes of lightening deter him from his mission. Tossing a glance behind him he saw the two officers following him, he was pretty easy to follow after all, he was shorter than they were so he could not run as fast and his bright red hoodie did not help camouflage him in his bright green surroundings.

Having no plan for escape Alvin feared this would be the end of his journey and he would have to go home. This thought had a twofold effect on the chipmunk it first depressed him; he had come so far just to get turned away now? But with that came his typical Alvin attitude, he had come so far and nothing was going to stop him from getting to Brittany.

Although the boy felt the fatigue in every inch of his body, his lungs burned, and his legs ached but he forced himself to run faster. An Alvin type plan had just come to him, not sure if it would work or not he put it into motion in a last ditch effort to get away. Slowly doubling back on himself in a wide enough arch as to not run into his pursuers he headed for the road. Reaching the road first just like he anticipated and hoped the boy jumped into the still running sheriff's car. They obvious thought Alvin would be easier to catch but he managed to prove them wrong. Quickly rolling up the windows and locking the doors the boy stood on the seat and kicked the gear shift from park to neutral, as he did this the first deputy reached the car and slammed his fist against the window yelling at Alvin to stop the car but Alvin did no such thing.

It was obvious that Alvin had never operated a car before and certainly did not know how to drive either but he figured he would make due. Since the car was on a slight hill it started rolling forward in neutral, the drive chain was not engaged but Alvin did not need it he only had to get far enough away to make the rest of his escape on foot.

The rolling car slowly gained speed with the officers trailing behind him, with Alvin behind the wheel to keep the car straight on the road, in the country side of New Jersey it was common for the hills to have a rolling effect to them. The car went down a hill up another, down another, looking back after the third hill Alvin realized he had enough distance between himself and his adversaries to abandon the car for them to find. Looking around however Alvin realized he had not quite planned this part of his escape out, like at all. "Huh oh" Alvin muttered as he noticed the car picking up speedy, knowing now that he had to figure something out fast, spotting the handle he believed to be the emergency brake he believed he had found his way out. Trying to hold onto the steering wheel with one hand and keep the car going straight he reached down and pulled up on the handle as fast as he could. This action caused the cars brakes to lock up and sent Alvin lurching forward against the steering wheel of the vehicle. To Alvin's joy however the car did come to a stop, over joyed by this the boy unlocked the door and exited the car. Breaking out at a decently fast run Alvin continued his journey along the road.

Several hours later found the now non-pursued chipmunk seeking shelter in a barn that belonged to one of the farms, the storm had all but subsided but he was still dripping wet and was in need of a way to dry his clothing or he risked catching a cold or worse. Entering the large building he found that it was like any other barn, it had a big tractor parked in the middle and had stalls for a few animals as well as having feed for the animals housed there. Moving to the corner of the barn that seemed to be a storage area for the farm's hay he found what looked like a bed already made from the golden straw. Too tired to question it he flopped down on the hay which would work as a decent insulator to help him stay warm throughout the night. Letting his wet arm flop against his forehead he sighed to himself remembering how wet he was and that he needed to correct that problem before going to sleep.

The boy was about to sit up when he heard the sound of the barn door swing open and the sound of cheerful humming. Alvin knew he should be afraid that he could be found but he honestly could not care less at this point, he just hoped that whoever it was would be friendly enough to let him sleep where he sat. To his dismay however the cheerful humming seemed to be getting closer, suddenly the owner of the humming came within view of Alvin but the darkness shadowed out the face and figure of the person.

The newcomer however was more attuned, the person was aware of the presence of another person. Somewhat shakily the voice that had been humming asked "who's there?"

Alvin as thoughtful for a moment, the voice was very youthful and sounded feminine, deciding the best course of action was to respond Alvin did just that, "my names Alvin… I'm looking for somewhere to sleep for the night".

The owner of the voice took note that she was speaking to another child and turned on a flashlight she had with her. Shining the light at Alvin to see what he looked like she asked, "why don't you just go home?"

Sighing audibly the boy took a slow step towards her, "I very far from home".

Deciding the boy was no threat to her the girl walked closer to him and flicked a light switch that was on the wall next to the boy which turned on an overhead light in the area they were in. As Alvin's eyes adjusted to the light he saw that she was a girl about his height probably a year or two younger, she had red-ish blond hair and crystal blue eyes. She wore a light blue and white plaid flannel shirt and blue jeans. Stepping closer to the boy once more she extended her hand, "my names Jessica… you can call me Jess".

Alvin gently shook her hand as he stared at the girl, he was happy she was friendly but he had trouble getting over how much this girl named Jessica looked like Brittany. He as snapped from this thought as he pulled her hand way suddenly after a very short handshake. She then suddenly touched his arm, shoulder and finally his chest before retracting her hand again. "Were you out in the storm? You're soaking wet, we need to get you dried off or you'll catch pneumonia!" she said taking him by the hand and leading him out the back doors of the barn.

The girl quickly went to work building a small fire behind the barn for him to dry out with. Alvin was impressed with how fast she was able to put together the fire, Alvin himself knew how to build and start fires but this girl was so much faster and her fire burnt better then Alvin's ever had. "You're pretty good at that" Alvin complimented to start some sort of conversation.

"Thanks…I've had a lot of practice" the girl said before skipping off into the barn leaving Alvin front of the cheerfully crackling blaze. The girl came back shortly and tossed a blanket on his lap, "go ahead and get out of those wet clothes" she prompted turning her back to give Alvin some privacy to strip off his wet clothing. Obliging her, the boy quickly got undressed and wrapped himself in the blanket; turning back around the girl helped him spread out his clothing to help it dry more effectively. Once that was done she settled down a few feet from him and offered him some food she had brought with her.

Alvin gladly accepted the offer and ate what he was given. The girl watched him eat for a little while before asking any questions, "so where are you from Alvin?" she asked curiously.

"Los Angeles" he said softly staring into the heart of the fire.

The girl was silent as she took that in, "like as in California?" she asked almost disbelievingly.

The boy nodded his head in the affirmative causing the girl to press further, "what are you doing all the way out here… alone?"

Alvin sighed and began his story but stuck to only the main points to make it easier to follow, "my best friend is very sick, she's in Philadelphia, an I'm going to see her" he stated in explanation then followed that up with all he had done to get to his current state.

The girl listened intently while he spoke taking it all in, "you're some friend… she's lucky to have you" she said with smile.

Normally Alvin would agree anyone would be lucky to have him as a friend in his opinion, but he still could not shake the feeling that he may have done something wrong to put himself in the dark about Brittany's move out east. Instead of agreeing Alvin just shrugged his shoulders, "I'm the lucky one… she's really special I probably couldn't live without her".

With that statement out in the open the duo fell into silence staring into the yellow/orange glow of the fire that was warming them and drying Alvin's clothing.

After an hour or so of sitting around the fire Alvin's clothes had dried enough for him to put them back on. Putting out the fire the two children reentered the barn and approached the mounds of hay, Alvin laid back down on the hay that seemed to be bedded down on the floor but the girl chastised him for it. "That's not how you sleep in hay" she said with a giggle.

"There's a right way?" Alvin asked somewhat confused

"Of course" the girl replied as Alvin stood up, "there's a right way to do everything… here watch" she said before crawling into the mound of hay. Alvin watched her curiously as she turned herself around to face him, "see? Just like that, this way it'll keep you warmer, no need for a blanket".

Alvin was somewhat enthused by the idea of sleeping inside the pile of hay so he gladly crawled inside with the girl. "Good night Alvin" she said softly rolling over to give him some personal space. Alvin also rolled over to return the favor before whispering his goodnight back.

The next morning Alvin woke up to the sound of the girl's voice rousing him from his slumber, "Alvin… wake up, you should get moving" she prompted helpfully.

Alvin rolled over and nodded his head slowly, he knew she was right but he was so comfortable and warm inside the pile of hay that he did not want to leave, not yet anyway. Forcing these thoughts back he slowly flopped out of the hay and stood up picking pieces of straw from his clothing. "Thanks for letting me stay the night Jess" he said softly as she walked him out of the barn.

"You're welcome Alvin… if you're ever in these parts again, feel free to stop by" the girl said with a broad smile as he started on his way.

Freshly rejuvenated from his night of sleep the boy began his trek again for the day, today would be different though. It was a beautiful sunny day, and he could feel himself getting closer with every footfall, it was still going to be a long day but knowing that he was almost there helped him cope with the long hours of walking. Although his hay bed was comfortable, his body still ached from all the walking he had been doing, his legs and feet felt it the most followed by his back and neck. He looked forward to the reward at the end of the journey and that was enough for him to force himself onward.

Not long after the sun had set that day Alvin found himself standing at the entrance to a bridge that spanned a very wide river known by the name the Delaware. Taking a long breath he looked on across the bridge at the great city of Philadelphia on the other side of the river. Although because of the darkness he could not completely see the city he could see the twinkling lights and the silhouettes of the massive buildings against the dark sky. Exhaling that breath he continued on across the bridge determined to complete his journey tomorrow morning.

On the far side of the bridge Alvin continued walking for some distance into the city before finding yet another church to sleep in. Not caring anymore if anyone found him he sprawled out on one of the pews towards the back of the church and enjoyed another decent night's sleep.

Rising in the morning as the first rays of light began shining through the stained glass windows of the large church the chipmunk exited the building and began to look around for clues as to where the hospital was that he sought. Spotting a sign for the hospital he was looking for, the chipmunk began walking at a quick pace in the direction the sign indicated.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Hearing a familiar voice out in the hall Brittany called out as the door opened still blocking the new comer from her view, "Jeanette?" Brittany called out weakly.

"No… Eleanor" the short blonde chipette said with a smile as she walked into the room shutting the door behind herself.

"Hey Ellie… is Alvin here yet?" she asked

Eleanor looked up at her sister confused as she pulled herself to a sitting position on the edge of the bed, "I didn't even know he was coming up"

"Jeanette called him… he was on his way up" Brittany replied a hint of worry in her voice that something may have happened to Alvin because he should have been there by now.

"I'll go see if Jeanette has heard anything" Eleanor said with a cheerful smile as she slid off the bed, then left the room to find Jeanette coming up the hallway. "Jeanette… is Alvin coming up here?" Eleanor asked somewhat puzzled

Jeanette shrugged her shoulders, and explained the phone call she had had with Simon and explained to her sister how important it was to let her believe her friend was still coming until they were able to actually locate him.

"We can only lie to her for so long before she realizes" Eleanor said sadly, "he should have been here by now".

Nodding, Jeanette sighed sadly, she knew her little sister was right, "I was hoping he would have gotten here by now… I guess I'll just have to tell her the truth". Eleanor nodded in agreement and both chipettes walked back into their sister's room and sat down on her bed to keep her company.

As her sisters settled into a seated position on the edge of her bed Brittany began to get a little antsy, "when is Alvin going to get here? It's been nearly a week" Brittany asked again, Jeanette sighed, "I-" she began then stopped herself, "we can't find him Brittany" the chipette said sadly letting out a breath as if a weight was lifted from her shoulders.

Brittany was silent as a few tears leaded from her eyes rolled down her cheeks, "what do you mean you can't find him?" Brittany asked her voice breaking with every word.

Jeanette let out a sight, "Simon said he ran away from home to come up here after that we don't know where he is but he should have been here by now" Jeanette replied as a tear came to her eye as well.

Getting no response from Brittany, Jeanette glanced at the machine monitoring her vitals and sighed as she watched her vitals begin to slowly lower slightly.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Later that evening after locating the hospital, Alvin entered the building and strode up to the front desk at a brisk pace. "What room is Brittany Miller in?" he asked pulling himself up to look over the counter.

The receptionist looked over her glasses at the chipmunk "Brittany Miller is not allowed any visitors that aren't members of her family because of how severe her condition is".

Alvin stared at the nurse for a moment, he knew he was going to have to run if he wanted to see her, he really did not have the energy to run but he was going to force himself too for Brittany. Without a word he dropped down and ran past the desk ignoring the shouts of the lady at the counter. Running down the hall the boy hurried up to the elevator and pressed the button several times and began to wait but quickly became impatient as he noticed the nurse chasing after him, "come on!" he muttered before taking off for the stairs. Flinging open the door to the stair way the chipmunk took a moment to look up at what looked like a never ending tower of stairs above him, having walked over 100 miles to get here he was not going to let a handful of stairs stop him from finding his friend.

Brittany now sat in her room alone crying because she now knew Alvin probably was not coming to see her, she did about the only thing she could do to easy her heartache, she sang:

" _When the night has come  
And the land is dark  
And the moon is the only light we'll see  
No I won't be afraid, no I won't be afraid  
Just as long as you stand, stand by me"_

Brittany paused to let a few sobs out before continuing.

" _So darlin', darlin', stand by me, oh stand by me  
Stand by me, stand by me"_

Alvin continued to bound up the stairs, as he neared the floor he was searching for he began to hear Brittany's beautiful voice, the voice he had feared he would never hear again, "Brittany!" he called out as he continued up the last set of steps.

" _If the sky that we look upon  
Should tumble and fall  
And the mountains should crumble to the sea  
I won't cry, I won't cry, no I won't shed a tear  
Just as long as you stand, stand by me"_

Alvin swung the door to the stairwell open and could hear her voice clearer now but he wasn't sure which direction it was coming from, taking his best guess he headed left and began running but the next part sounded fainter than before…

 _"And darlin', darlin', stand by me, oh stand by me  
Stand by me, stand by me, stand by me, yeah"_

Practically turning around on a dime Alvin hurried back the other way and this time the voice got louder and louder. _  
_  
_"Whenever you're in trouble won't you stand by me, oh now now stand by me  
Oh stand by me, stand by me, stand by me"_

Stopping just outside her door which was open he quietly stepped inside and began to sing the next part with her in perfect harmony.

 _"Darlin', darlin', stand by me, stand by me  
Oh stand by me, stand by me, stand by me"_

So wrapped up in her own sorrowful thoughts and the song she was pouting her heart into Brittany failed to even notice his voice singing in perfect harmony with hers, until he drug out the last note slightly longer than she did. Hearing the familiar song voice she craved to hear so badly caused her to whip her head around to the side to face the boy who was still standing just inside the open door. As her crystal ice blue eyes caught sight of him they widened with joy and excitement, "Alvin!" she cried out weakly opening her arms to him. Alvin ran forward his eyes drenching his cheeks in tears of joy and happiness, "Brittany!" he cried out pulling himself up onto her bed, collapsing to his knees right beside her he practically dropped into her waiting arms.

The nurse who had roused security and followed the boy up to his current destination stood at the door with the tall well built, uniformed security officer. "Do you want me to escort him out?" the man asked but the nurse shook her head.

Being one of the nurses who routinely checked in on Brittany knew this was the happiest she's been since she arrived. "No" the nurse said with a smile, "that won't be necessary".

With that said both the nurse and the security guard turned and walked away from the room with the two children inside to give them some time alone.

….

"Alvin… I missed you so much" Brittany said weakly hugging him as tightly as her weakened body would allow.

"Me too" Alvin said resting his chin on her shoulder as he let a few tears fall from his eyes.

As Alvin remained in his friends embrace he could not stop the flurry of emotions from overtaking him and confusing him. He was overjoyed to see her mere words could not describe how happy he was to finally be reunited with her. On the other hand however he wanted to be angry at her for deceiving him in the first place. How could he be happy knowing she had more or less lied to him and abandoned him back in California? This was where his conflict came in, be angry, be happy… be both? Could he be both was that a possibility?

As if she could read his mind she squeezed him a little tighter, "I'm sorry Alvin… I'm sorry for not telling you about this" she whispered gently into his ear.

As she said this Alvin could almost feel the sincerity in her voice and all of a sudden Alvin knew how to feel. The anger he once felt seemed to just melt away, the core of it was still there but it was being wrapped in happiness locking it away hopefully to never surface.

Giving her a reassuring squeeze back he slowly started to release her, "I forgive you" he said softly a small grin appearing on his face. As silence began to fall between them, Alvin settled into a sitting position folding his legs next to her, he then started to recount his entire long adventure from California to New York to Pennsylvania.

Very intrigued by the story of his journey Brittany could not help but ask questions about every part of his tale, it was just so fascinating. Not to mention he did it all for her, and that alone hit an extremely soft spot deep down in her heart, it made her feel as very special to him.

Usually Alvin disliked when people would interrupt one of his stories to ask questions but this time Alvin did not mind, he was just happy to be finally reunited with her after all this time.

Sighing softly Brittany smiled lightly, "you did all that for me?" she gushed over his efforts once he had concluded the story.

Alvin nodded, "you're my best friend Brittany…I'd do anything for you".

Brittany giggled at this as she laid her head back onto her pillow that was on the raised bed.

As silence over took the room he asked the question he had been waiting to ask since he got there, "did the doctors say when you will get better?"

* * *

 _ **A/N: Is that a cliffhanger or what? Either way love it or hate drop a line in the reviews! Just as a reminder keep an eye out for the PSA in the next chapter's A/N for important information regarding future chapters!**_


	15. Love Like That

**_A/N: ALERT, PLEASE READ THIS WARNING!  
Ok now that I hopefully got your attention chapter 15 and 16 have been uploaded back to back because this is the end of the line… the end of the story. Now chapter 16 is NOT the NEXT chapter, it is an alternate ending. I Wrote to endings to this story and could not decide which one to use so you're getting both of them, sort of like a director's cut of a movie well this is the author's cut of the story. I also have an extra scene or two that did not make it into the story so if you'd like to see that please let me know and I'll toss it up as an extra chapter but I ain't gonna put it up if nobody wants to see it so…. Let me know, now I've wasted enough of your time please read, enjoy and review._**

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Weakly pushing herself back to a sitting position Brittany bit her lower lip somewhat nervously, although she was overjoyed to see her friend again she feared this moment, she feared she would have to be the one to tell him. At the same time though she did not want anyone else telling him, because she knew it had to be her. Sucking in a deep breath to hold back the tears she felt welling up deep inside her threatening to fall; trying to push the urge to start crying uncontrollably away she tried to begin her explanation, "soon… very soon…" she replied in a very sad tone clearing her voice trying to hide how much her voice was quivering.

Alvin was not too good at picking up on subtle clues but her expression of depression was far from subtle it practically screamed to him that something was wrong and he needed to know what it was. Raising an almost suspicious eyebrow he stared into his friend's face, "if you're going to be fine… why do you sound so sad?" he asked skeptically fearing she was still hiding something from him.

The quizzical look the boy was giving her was too much for the chipette to handle, the flood gates opened and the tears began streaking down her face. After observing this he knew she would need a moment to recompose, so he waited until she had gotten her emotions mostly back under control before giving her a look that clearly said 'please tell me what's going on'.

Instantly knowing what that look meant the chipette practically threw herself at the boy, "oh Alvin" Brittany cried out wrapping her arms around him, "I'm so sorry about this" she said laying her head against his chest.

"Sorry for what?" Alvin asked trying his best to look down into her face. Staring at the girl he tried to think of what she would have to apologize about but he came up blank. She had already apologized for not telling him about the move out here, unless she was apologizing for being sick? But that was not her fault and she should know that, still unsure of what she may be talking about the boy tried to comfort her the best way he could, "this isn't your fault Brittany" he whispered tenderly as he gently rocked her back and forth.

The duo stayed embraced for a little while longer while Brittany regained her composure again. Finally separating the chipette turned her gaze downward to her lap, she had no idea how to tell him this, why did it have to be so hard? They are just words, _'I speak words like them every day… why is this so hard?'_ she thought as she let out a troubled sigh, coming to a decision on how to put her statement she softly said "I'm not going to get better Alvin".

The boy had no idea how to receive that information, it was very vague, not very descriptive, 'she was not going to get better' she said, does that mean she is not going to get worse but stay stable the way she is? Will she not get better but only get worse? Neither of these were favorable options but he would rather her stay stable the way she was rather than get worse. Shaking his head slowly he tried not to let this information dig at him too much, instead Alvin posed a question to help clarify, "does that mean you're going to have to stay in this hospital all the time?" he asked, although that would sadden him immensely he would make it work.

How would he make that work, it was across the country from where he lived? He would have to pull up stakes and move out here regardless of what his family thought. Yea… that's what he would do, not the most favorable option but he would make it work, she was his best friend and he would move Heaven and Earth for her.

The boy was torn from his thoughts and planning by Brittany's voice saying, "no Alvin"

"…I don't think you understand what I mean" the chipette said weakly moving her body closer to his. She knew she had to put him in a comfortable spot, a safe place for him to hear this information that she was about to give him. "Hold me… please" the redhead asked prompting Alvin to wrap his arms around her and pull her against himself.

Concluding with herself that telling him by not telling him directly and letting him figure out a few cryptic clues that she would give him was her best bet. This way it distanced her from the reality of actually having to tell him, he would tell himself once he figured it out. Giving this approach a shot took in a slow breath, "I'm going to go away… far away but I'll still be close to you" She said looking up into his deep blue eyes with her crystal clear ice blue ones, "and eventually, hopefully after quite a few years, we'll be reunited again". She was trying desperately hard to tell him without actually saying it because she knew how much it would hurt him to hear the terrible awful truth of her situation especially from her because she was the one who choose to keep it a secret in the first place. Sugar coating it in mysterious clues also made it easier for her not only to accept it but explain it as well.

Alvin blinked a few times at the chipette, the boy was no mood to figure anything out right now, he was mentally and physically exhausted as well as emotionally drained and this was not helping. He would rather she just said it, good news, bad news either way it was better than the vague hints she was dropping, it was actually starting to frustrate him now, "I didn't understand a word you just said, I really don't like riddles" Alvin muttered softly trying to hide his frustration from her because he knew it would do neither of them any good.

Brittany nodded slowly realizing she was going to have to take a direct approach with him, she really did not want it to come down to this, having him find out in any other way was probably better than this. But apparently this was the only way so she lifted her head slightly to meet his gaze and tried again to explain the situation, this time more directly, pulling no punches she just had out with it and got it over with, "I'm dying Alvin… the doctors don't believe I'll live past Sunday".

Her words hit the chipmunk like a one hundred ton truck, at first he had no idea how to respond he just continued to stare at her in disbelief and uncontrollable sadness, Alvin had a little experience with life's only inevitable feature when his and his brother's kitten was hit by a car. This felt different though, in that case it was his favorite pet, his only pet now it was his best friend, the one person on earth he felt he could not live without. As his brain tried to process all of this a pinch of anger slowly crept into the mix of emotions he was feeling as well, "NO!" Alvin exclaimed finally, practically shouting, after nearly two whole minutes of complete silence, "That's only three days!"

Brittany nodded sadly, his outburst had made her jump but she expected something like that, it was understandable given the circumstances. Feeling as if she needed to explain herself a little further she said, "I know… I wanted to see you so bad before I…" she said letting her voice trail off, there was no point in saying it again, she knew Alvin understood now.

Alvin shook his head sadly, "you can't leave me… I need you" he said as his tears began to fall from his eyes. This was a crushing defeat for the boy he had never felt so much emotional pain, he had never felt so alone before. Trying to counter this he gently squeezed the chipette into his warm embrace, burying his face into her shoulder he continued to cry letting her tears soak into Brittany's hospital gown.

His reaction was better than she had hoped it would be, she feared he would become angry at her when she told him. Seeing him like this broke her heart, shattered it to pieces so small it could never be put back together, she never wanted to hurt him, she was only trying to protect him from the truth. Did she succeed? She would never know, from where she sat right now it looked as if she made it worse by not telling him. In either case she would have to live with her decision so she tried to make peace with it rationalizing it as the best course of action.

Seeking comfort in his embrace from her internal struggle of right vs wrong the chipette sighed, Brittany loved the feeling of being in his warm embrace, it was so calming and peaceful but she could not stop herself from crying as well, "don't cry Alvin…" she said between her own sobs "I'll always be with you even when I'm gone".

"Please Brittany…" Alvin said gently pressing his nose against hers as he sniffled back a few tears "don't leave me… not yet". He knew he would never be ready to say goodbye to her forever but this was definitely too soon.

"You know if I had a choice Alvin I would never leave you… but it's my time…" Brittany said closing her eyes. Knowing the best thing to do now was to let the exhausted boy cry himself to sleep the chipette coaxed both of them into a laying position on the bed. Now laying down, they continued to seek comfort in each other's loving embrace. It was not long after they settled into a laying position both overly fatigued chipmunks ended up crying themselves to sleep and were sleeping soundly in the embrace of their best friend.

…

The next morning when Jeanette and Eleanor came in to visit their sister they were somewhat surprised to see Alvin lying in the bed next to Brittany who was still sleeping in the hospital bed, they knew he was hopefully going to arrive sooner rather than later but they did not expect to find him right now. Noting that the boy was awake, Jeanette walked over to the bed and addressed him, "Alvin… I'm glad you were able to make it".

Alvin nodded his agreement, "wasn't easy" the chipmunk replied in brief explanation, he was trying to not let his annoyance of being kept out of the loop show through.

Jeanette nodded taking note of the chipmunk's annoyance, she understood why he was annoyed and decided it would be better to just let the sleeping dog lie and not mention it, at least right now. Moving towards the bed the brunette took a seat at the foot of the bed followed by Eleanor who sat beside her, "how is she doing?" Eleanor asked. "She's sleeping" Alvin replied gently stroking her cheek before sitting up and pulling his legs in to fold them in front of himself. Jeanette nodded at this, "How much has she told you?"

Alvin spun his head to look at the middle sister as he spoke to her, "she told me everything…but I want to know why I wasn't told before" he questioned still slightly annoyed by this fact.

"She didn't want you to know, she figured you'd only be hurt by the truth… then we had to move out here so she could be in this hospital to give her the best chance of survival and she regretted not telling you but it was too late at that point" Jeanette replied somewhat sadly. She knew she should not have agreed to keep it a secret but it was her family, that made it ok, right?

"Didn't anybody stop to consider how I would have felt if one day I would have gotten a phone call from one of you telling me that Brittany had…" he let his voice trail off as he stole a glance back at the chipette's peacefully sleeping face, before turning back to Jeanette, "well? Did anybody stop and think how I might feel? What that would have done to me?"

Jeanette and Eleanor gave each other an understandingly sympathetic glance before they both adverted their gazes to the floor. They both knew Alvin had all the right to know but neither one of them wanted to disobey their elder sister's wish, so they painfully kept it a secret for several months. Seeing the downtrodden expressions of the chipettes Alvin sighed and shrugged it off, he knew it was not their fault it's just how things were, "I know now… that's the important part I guess" he said breaking the awkward silence that had begun to gather in the room.

Alvin slowly leaned back and glanced at the auburn haired chipette who appeared to still be sleeping soundly and somewhat painlessly. Noting how peaceful the chipette looked as she slept Alvin became curious of something he had forgotten to think about in a while "is she in pain?" Alvin asked gently stroking her hair.

Jeanette nodded, "sometimes she denies it but she's almost constantly suffering anymore… she hides it well" the chipette replied.

"I don't want to lose her" Alvin said softly, "not yet".

Nodding her understanding Jeanette slid closer to the chipmunk knowing she needed to be the surrogate older sister Alvin did not have but that he looked to Jeanette to be, "none of us do Alvin, but you have to stay strong for her" she said reaching over and gently rubbing Alvin's shoulder, "she's going to need support from everybody right now… especially you".

Alvin nodded his understanding as he sighed deeply, he could be strong and supportive, that's all he did when she was bedridden at home, he just needed to tap back into that 'Alvin' because the Alvin he was currently was in no shape to be supportive, "I know… it's just so hard to fathom and accept".

"I know" Jeanette said softly still rubbing his shoulder, "I know it is".

…

Sometime later on in the day Brittany finally woke up, Jeanette had filled Alvin in that Brittany was sleeping longer 10 sometimes 12 hours and was progressively getting weaker each day. "Alvin?" she whispered questioningly with her eyes still half closed.

The change in the chipette's wellbeing since yesterday was painfully obvious, she was notably weaker and appeared more fragile as if the life was being slowly drained from her body soon to only leave behind a shell of who she used to be.

"I'm right here Brittany" the chipmunk said picking up her hand and rubbing it gently.

"So it wasn't a dream last night?" she asked smiling weakly, "you are actually here".

"Yep… I'm really here" he replied softly reclining to wrap his arm around the shoulder of the ill chipette.

Using his arm that was now behind her he helped her to a sitting position. Smiling her thanks she shakily reached to the small table next to the bed and grabbed one of her hair ties. As she began pulling her soft auburn hair into her usual ponytail her hand began to quiver before she completely lost strength in her arm. As her arm fell practically limp to her side all the stamina left her causing her to groan in defeat as she tossed the hair tie onto the bed next to her. Dropping her face into her other hand she began to lightly sob. Yesterday she still had the strength to do her own hair; today she was so frail she could not even put her hair into a pony tail. Knowing this was a sign of decline made her realize how close to the end she was and this thought scared her.

Wasting no time Alvin leaned forward and scooped up the hair tie but he also reached past her to the side table and snatched up one of her hair brushes. Knowing that whatever thoughts that were going through her head were probably pretty negative the boy slowly and gently began brushing her soft auburn red hair. Feeling the familiar tugging of the brush through her hair the chipette slowly lifted her face to look at the chipmunk. "You don't have to…" she began but was cut off by her counterpart.

"I want to" he said caringly as he finished up, setting the brush down he gingerly gathered her hair into her usual high ponytail leaving a just enough free to fall alongside her face, like she always used to wear it. Wiping her tears away she smiled at him, "thank you Alvin" she whispered softly as she raised her gaze to match his.

Smiling wirily the chipmunk nodded, "you're welcome" pausing for a moment he reached again over to the table and picked up a tray of food a nurse had dropped off earlier in the day. "Are you hungry? You've been sleeping nearly all day".

Brittany shrugged as she picked up the juice box that accompanied the meal, "this is fine… I'm really not too hungry right now" she said as she tried to press the straw into the weakened slot to make it easier to insert. Alvin watched as she attempted this menial task that she no longer had the strength to perform. Alvin felt so sorry for her, as if dying was not bad enough she had to idly sit here while bodily functions slowly decayed away. Seeing that she was starting to get upset and frustrated the boy laid his hand on hers signaling her to stop, "Britt… let me help you with that" he whispered warmly as he slowly took the juice box and straw from her. The chipette nodded sadly as she watched the boy effortlessly stab the straw into the box.

"Huh… that one was pretty tough, must be a defect" the boy lied as he handed the sugary beverage back to the redhead.

Brittany said nothing at this but grinned slightly as she sipped at her juice, she was really happy Alvin was here, he could always raise her spirits even in the bleakest of times, he could always find a way to make her smile.

Later on as the evening turned into night Alvin continued to sit with Brittany even after her sisters had left for the night. After explanation of Alvin's situation to the hospital staff they agreed to grant him a special pass to stay overnight at the hospital as long as Brittany was a patient with them. Alvin was extremely grateful for their generosity because it was against their policy to let anyone beside patients stay overnight but upon hearing the story of his travels the staff took pity on him and granted him that special ability.

As the evening faded so did Brittany's strength even more so than earlier in the day, hoping it was just general fatigue of the few hours she was awake and mere sleep that was overtaking her and not the cold grasp of death Alvin kept talking and interacting with her to keep her conscious fearing that if he let her go she would never wake up. This fear was rooted in a strange hollow feeling in the pit of Alvin's heart. It was cold and lonely, he could feel something was wrong but nothing seemed too much amiss given the situation but there was still something.

The heart rate monitor that was attached to the chipette kept grabbing the red capped chipmunk's attention as it kept sending off warning beeps when her heart rate dropped slowly. Suddenly her heart rate dropped again to a strangely slow and very unhealthy level, sending off a very disturbing signal; the heart monitor automatically called for assistance to address the problem. Several men and a couple of women promptly entered the room and began checking various monitors as well as the chipette's vitals.

Amongst the flurry of activity in the room one of the female doctors turned to one of the male nurses and gave him some instructions that Alvin instantly did not like, "nurse please escort him to the waiting area… he can't be here right now".

The male nurse quickly grabbed Alvin by the arm and began leading him out by the arm. Desperate to know if Brittany was going to be ok, Alvin tried turning around struggling lightly, "Brittany!" he cried out weakly as he was pulled through the door.

Being deposited in the waiting area down the hall Alvin protested his removal, "what's wrong with her?" he asked as the nurse turned to walk away.

Facing the chipmunk again he said, "we have to hook her up to a life support machine or she'll expire".

Hearing this made Alvin freeze both physically and mentally giving the nurse the time he needed to retreat back down the hall and back into the room where Brittany was. Sending himself into a panicked state the chipmunk began taking in long deep breaths as his mind and body simply shut down. Collapsing to an Indian style sitting position in the middle of the empty waiting area the chipmunk fought back tears as he began to rock himself front to back for comfort that he could not find because there was none to be had. Brittany was on the brink of dying, he was forced to remain in the waiting room held there more by his own fear then any order given to him by a nurse.

As he sat in the waiting area for a piece of time that felt like eternity he watched the medical staff that had entered the room leave and disperse back into the hospital. Sniffling back and wiping away tears Alvin stood up and hesitantly walked back to Brittany's room, pushing the door open he found the light off but he ignored the darkness and hurried up to the bedside. Pulling himself up onto the bed he looked down at the chipette who now had a tube in her mouth, an oxygen line running to her nose and more wires hooked up to her chest then before. Falling to his knees beside the chipette he watched her eyelids slowly slide up revealing her bright ice blue eyes.

Although his rollercoaster of emotions had lunched off the track and crashed into the ground his heart jumped a bit when he saw her eyes. He feared he would never see them again, how relieved he was to see them.

Feebly the chipette moved her arm up and delicately pushed against the device holding the tube in her mouth. Noticing this action Alvin moved closer, "no… you need it" Alvin said letting a few tears fall from his eyes.

Brittany moved her head slowly and frailly from left to right before trying again to push against the device. Knowing that she was not going to give up Alvin gave in and asked, "are you sure?"

To this Brittany blinked her eyes once and nodded her agreement, sighing Alvin removed the device and tube and dropped both parts onto the bed beside her. Gathering her strength Brittany tilted her head to look at her friend, "it's only going to delay the inevitable".

Knowing what she was talking about Alvin settled in close to her and pulled her into his lap and cradled her in his arms as he continued to sit cross-legged. Stealing a glance at the heart monitor he could see it declining slowly again like before making him panic and freak out internally. He knew this was the end but he had no idea how to handle or cope with that fact.

Trying to sigh out his sadness and hold back his tears Alvin lowered his head and rested his forehead against hers as he continued to stare into her eyes. Using what strength she had left she tilted her head back a little further so her lips just barely met his. Planting a very delicate kiss she retracted slightly and smiled as she looked into his surprised eyes. As they continued to get lost in each other's eyes Brittany slowly nodded her head and let Alvin kiss her like she had but let it last longer. After Alvin slowly pulled away Brittany sighed, a very satisfied thin smile on her lips, "sing me a song Alvin" she whispered shifting her body to snuggle closer to his body in his arms.

Alvin thought for a second and cleared his throat before he began to sing.

" _Come back don't leave keep stalling  
Come back to me I'm falling in love_

 _But the last thing you said to me_  
 _Made it seem like this just won't last_  
 _Ooh time and time again_  
 _Breaking all our plans from the past_

 _You'll find out_  
 _Hear me now_  
 _There's no one better out there_

 _Come back don't leave keep stalling  
Come back to me I'm falling in love_

 _But the last thing you said to me  
Made it seem like this just won't last ye he ha  
Ooh time and time again  
Breaking all our plans from the past_

 _You'll find out_  
 _Hear me now_  
 _There's no one better out there_

 _You made me laugh  
I made you cry  
It's time we said our last goodbye"_

As soon as he finished singing Brittany smiled, "I think I'm falling in love with you too Alvin…"

Even amidst the situation Alvin managed to give a halfhearted chuckle at this "good… because I've been in love with you for a while" Alvin said warmly finally able to put words to those feelings he had been feeling while struggling to figure out where they stood in their friendship. Brittany smiled up at him in slight disbelief but with sparkling eyes of pure happiness, mustering up what strength she had left she managed to move her hand up to caress his cheek.

Coming to the realization of what he had just said he continued to look into her eyes, "I love you Brittany" he said restating his previous declaration no sooner had the last syllable rolled off his tongue her hand fell as her body went limp in his arms, her head flopped onto his arm and her hands dangled uselessly at her sides. As this happened, the heart monitor set off an incredibly loud, high pitched obnoxious straight beep.

"Brittany?" Alvin asked shaking her gently refusing to accept the truth of what was happening, "Brittany wake up!" he begged louder as he began to cry. "Brittany…" he said one last time, his voice choked by his sobs. Slowly his tears began to fall uncontrollably as he pressed his face into her chest and continued crying while keeping her wrapped in his arms.

...

About two weeks after that fateful night when Brittany passed away in his arms Alvin found himself walking through a cemetery outside of Los Angeles with his brothers and the remaining two chipettes. "I still can't believe she's really gone" Alvin sad sadly as they approached the coffin that housed Brittany's body.

Simon came up behind his brother and gave his shoulder a reassuring squeeze, "you gonna be alright?"

Alvin nodded slowly, "yeah… I'll be fine" he replied.

"Ok" Simon said giving him a pat on the back.

The pastor held a small service for the deceased chipette then turned to the crowd, "would anyone like to share a few words?"

Alvin nodded and walked up to the front where the Vicar was standing, instead of merely speaking the chipmunk cleared his throat and began doing what he did best, he sang.

" _There she was, 3 foot 3, a picture of my mother's mother  
She showed me love, and all the ways of God  
Her final days were spent in bed then she passed away  
I won't forget her smiling face when she left us that night_

 _But I still miss you  
All the times we spent together  
To hear you talk about the weather  
I always prayed you'd get well soon  
I wish my prayer came true  
I know that Jesus has the answer  
And He's way bigger than the cancer in you  
But I still miss you_

 _If dreams came true, just one more chance to talk to you_  
 _And thank you for the time you spent teaching me the truth_  
 _A boy back then, I've grown up, now I'm a man_  
 _I can finally understand the things you said to me_

 _But I still miss you_  
 _All the times we spent together_  
 _To hear you talk about the weather_  
 _I always prayed you'd get well soon_  
 _I wish my prayer came true_  
 _I know that Jesus has the answer_  
 _And He's way bigger than the cancer in you_  
 _But I still miss you_

 _I need some help to carry on  
I need some strength to keep me strong  
I need some help to carry on  
I need some strength to keep me strong"_

Letting his last note trail off Alvin wiped the tears from his face before slowly walking back to his place with his brothers and friends. Watching with saddened eyes Alvin looked on as they lowered her casket down into the hole that had been prepared for just this occasion, "I love you Brittany" Alvin whispered softly as her casket and body was laid to rest for all eternity. _'I love you too Alvin'_ he heard a voice say from deep inside him much like the voice he had heard previously but this voice sounded like Brittany. Alvin's heart skipped a beat as a tear rolled down his cheek.

' _I'll always be with you Alvin… even when I'm gone… I'll be with you forever and always'_ Brittany's voice whispered deep inside of him, filling every fiber of his cold sorrowful being with a soft warmth causing him to crack a very faint smile.

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 ** _A/N: Kind of a sad ending, sort of uplifting, depending on how you look at it, but if you did not like that ending or your just curious about the alternate ending mentioned in the opening author's note hop on over to chapter 16 and check it out! Jake out._**

 _ **P.S. Disclaimer real quick, I do not own either song used in this chapter, both songs "Jason's Song" and "I still Miss You" respectively are owned by Hawk Nelson.**_


	16. One Little Miracle

_**A/N: Alrighty then, so here is the alternate ending, for those who despise the other ending or are just curious here is an alternate take, hopefully this one ends more to your liking! Read, enjoy, review!**_

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Weakly pushing herself back to a sitting position the chipette bit her lower lip tenderly, she was hoping to avoid this conversation by not telling him in the first place but now he was here and she had no choice but to come clean and tell him the truth. She had already come to terms with her condition and her fate but she knew Alvin would not take it nearly as well. Rubbing her forehead with her hand she let it fall to her lap before using it to reach out and take his hand into hers, gesturing with the other hand she took both of his hands and tried her best to smile at him. "Alvin, I didn't know how to tell you this before… and I honestly still don't but that's why I hid it from you, to protect you from the truth" she said this letting only a stray tear fall from her eye and roll down her cheek.

Alvin furrowed his brow in slight annoyance, to him it sounded like she was still not going to tell him, although he understood it was her secret to keep he still felt as if he had a right to know. After a few moments of silence he prompted her on, "I'm here now, can you please tell me".

Taking in a deep breath she let her ice blue eyes lock with his dark blue orbs, "I'm dying Alvin" she practically whispered holding back her tears because she knew she had to be strong for Alvin right now, he would almost definitely need her, "the doctors don't think I'll make it past Sunday".

Taken completely off guard by both statements of fact Alvin was completely lost, as she said the first line everything seemed to slow down, it was so surreal as if it were some sort of dream… no, nightmare. The poor boy had no idea about how he should feel, this also prompted that core of anger he had to rejuvenate and almost surface, his emotions ranged from angry to annoyed to completely crushed. His only response at first was to stare into her eyes and say nothing but after a long silent moment he managed to find his voice and he spoke, "I thought they brought you here to make you better?" he asked choking down tears. He wanted to badly to stay strong for her, he could not show weakness, not now anyway.

Brittany shrugged weakly, "I'm sorry Alvin… I wasn't completely honest with you" she said sadly. "Before we left California they knew my outlook was bleak but coming out here to this hospital was a ray of hope… unfortunately we got here a little too late, there's nothing they can do at this stage".

Alvin only stared at her with wounded eyes; he was hurting bad on the inside, how could she do this to him? Did she not trust him? What would make her lie to him like this, about something this big? The fact that she had not told him sooner and that this was how he had to find out was the part that probably taxed his heart the most. "Why didn't you tell me?" he asked a slight hint of anger in his voice but still very compassionately.

The redhead could hear the thin lines of anger tracing through his question and she feared this could be the end of their friendship, how could she be so stupid to not tell him, he had a right to know. "I didn't want you to worry about me… I've made peace with my fate, but I wasn't sure how you would react" Brittany said gently wiping a tear from his cheek, "I'm sorry Alvin… I thought it would be better this way…I was wrong". Using her grip on his hands she pulled him into a hug, fearful now that she may have lost her last true friend, her best friend she silently began crying to herself, "I'm so sorry Alvin… please forgive me?" she whispered softly hoping she could break through his anger.

The boy took a deep breath as he separated from the embrace and took her hands back up in his own. Nodding through his sadness, he squeezed her hands lovingly while forcing back his own tears, looking away from her he tried his hardest to not be overtaken by his sobbing but he quickly lost the battle. Feeling really sorry for her friend she opened her arms and said, "come on… it's gonna be alright". Letting himself practically collapse into her embrace the chipmunk hugged his friend back. "Shh… it's gonna be alright Alvin" she whispered softly as a few silent tears fell from her eyes as well. The two chipmunks continued to remain in each other's embrace for some time until Alvin finally slowly pulled away wiping the remaining tears from his eyes.

"Feel better?" Brittany asked hopefully, but Alvin shook his head, "no… and I don't think I ever will".

"I know… it isn't easy" Brittany explained, "I should have told you when I found out… it would have made this easier on both of us… you aren't mad are you?"

Alvin forced a small grin onto his face, "I'm not mad…you did what you thought you had too, I could never fault you for that".

Continuing to sit with each other they began conversing about what had happened over the summer when he was away and during his trip to Philadelphia the talk was a little redundant but it helped fill the time and ease some of the tension. As the late evening turned into night Alvin could tell Brittany was getting noticeably weaker, he knew she usually went to bed around this time so he figured he would let her do that. He really did not want to though, especially knowing now that his time with her was numbered in probably mere days he found it hard to leave her side for any reason. Finally though he mustered up the courage to let her rest.

Leaving the room to give her some peace and quiet to promote relaxation Alvin walked out into the hall and began reading the signs so he knew which direction he was heading in. His eyes seemed to glass over as he mentally read the signs while keeping his mind on Brittany and her situation. At this point Alvin had decided that not thinking about it was the best option, keeping it off his mind was probably the best idea he had because coping with the idea of losing her so soon did not bide with him. As his eyes wandered over the guiding plaques his eyes caught one of them and drew him out of his almost trance like state. The sign that read 'Chapel' in large letters practically spoke to him, beckoning him to follow it, so he did. Something deep down within him wanted him to follow the directions of the signs to their source, so he obeyed and began walking in the direction of hospital chapel.

Following the directions the signs gave him, he was led to a small church like room inside the hospital. Removing his cap as he entered he began to fidget with the brim as he slowly walked through the room which was void of people, up to the front pew. Pausing before the large life sized sculpture of the crucifix he knelt down and turned his eyes towards heaven and began to pray.

"I know I don't do this as often as I probably should but I really need help right now" he said looking towards the crucifix. "I don't even know if You're listening, I wouldn't blame You if You weren't but I don't want to lose her… she's my best friend, I know You've performed countless miracles… including healing the sick… and I guess that's what I'm kinda asking for, even if you don't cure her… at least give us some more time". As Alvin spoke his prayer out loud a silent rushing wind could be felt through the chapel, to Alvin the breeze was barely noticeable but it sent a shiver up his spine all the same.

As the wind seemed to subside Alvin heard the voice deep within him reappear, the same voice he would converse with, say, _'you're prayer has been heard, now go to your friend'_.

Hearing the voice spring up from within him brought a strange form of comfort, a comfort that he could not describe it was a strange tranquility that he had not felt in sometime. That strong sweeping emotion was accompanied by a sudden driving urge to be by Brittany's side. Standing up he quickly made his way up to her room as the voice had directed.

Reentering the hospital room the chipmunk found his friend still laying in the bed he had left her in, not that he was expecting anything different, letting out a sigh of almost defeat he slowly walked over and pulled himself up onto the bed to sit beside her as she continued to sleep soundly. For the first time in almost as long as Alvin could remember he found himself questioning himself on what to do. He wanted to stay with Brittany, his inner voice had instructed him to do so, and she was his everything, his life, his purpose, his reason for living right now but he felt like he needed to get away, take some time and think over everything that's happening right now. As if being around her was clouding not so much his judgment but his opinion of how he should be feeling about her state. He had this undying urge to go out of the building and get some fresh air to contemplate everything that he had been told. Figure out if all of this had been worth it, after all, his best friend was dying, the friend he had invested so much time and caring into. Should he consider it a waste of his time over the past few months taking care of her? Taking a moment to think about that question, he mentally kicked himself… hard, how could he even think that? Where were these thoughts even coming from, she was his best friend, of course it was all worth it.

Turning to look upon her sleeping face that seemed to bear a smile as she slept, Alvin sighed letting a grin over take his face. "If I had to do it again I wouldn't change a thing" he whispered to her as she slept, he figured she could not hear him but he needed to say it for himself as well, he needed to know that that was how he truly felt about it and he was not just trying to rationalize his actions.

Feeling his eyelids begin to get heavy the chipmunk reached over and pulled her hand into his, "I love you Brittany… I always have, always will and nothing will change that, not even the dark abyss of death will stop me from loving you." He whispered softly as he laid down beside her to sleep.

… _._

 _All she could feel was cold, she could hear and feel herself breathing but there was another sound, a loud thumping sound it seemed to have a rhythm she had heard before. After listening to the soft beat for a little while she recognized it as her heart beat, as she figured this out, she so realized her eyes were still shut. There was a part of her that did not want to open them, for she was afraid of what she might see. Swallowing down her fear though she slowly began opening her eyes; she believed she found herself laying down… at least she thought she was laying down. Everything around the chipette was black, pitch black, no sign of anything or anybody. Scrambling to her feet she looked around beginning to panic, it was as if she were in an endless room that was pitch black with absolutely no light. Turning around in all directions the abyss like darkness sent shivers up her spine, left, right, front, back, up, down and all between was the same. Taking a few cautious steps forwards she tried calling out for her friend, "Alvin?... Alvin, are you there?"_

 _To her dismay not only did Alvin not call back but her voice was swallowed up in the darkness, void of any echo or reverberation to help her find her way. "Is there anybody out there?" she called as she skeptically began walking around blindly. The darkness she found herself in was almost blinding, most people including Brittany usually take for granted how helpful the sense of sight is until they no longer have it._

 _As if in response to her earlier question asking if anybody was out there a sudden small speck of white light appeared and began swirling around until it manifested itself in front of her in the form of a person. Shielding her eyes from the bright light that had suddenly appeared she squeezed shut her eye lids to protect her eyes from being hurt by the light. When she reopened them the dark abyss was completely gone and she was standing in a large field of wildflowers. A place so beautiful she could only but imagine it, she doubted a place so wonderful could possibly exist. The sun shone bright and warm, the breeze blew gently blowing the knee high flowers around, a few small white puffy clouds hung in the sky and floated gingerly along their own merry way. With her eyes still unadjusted to the brightness she began to turn around and caught site of a tall figure dressed in dark clothing. Ignoring all the obvious signs that it was not the person she was hoping for she called out anyway, "Alvin?"_

 _Her response came in the negative, "no my child, my name is Errapel" the stranger said as he approached the skeptical girl. **(A/N: Pronounced: Eh-R-Ah-P-Ah-L)**_

" _Where am I?" Brittany asked curiously as the man drew near to her._

" _Do you not recognize it?" the man asked gaining a shake of the head from the young girl, "you yourself have created this place. This is your 'happy place'" he said answering her previous question._

 _Brittany thought about this a moment, whenever someone told her to go to her 'happy place' this is what she envisioned but she did not put herself here so she was curious as to how she got here and why she was here so she vocalized that question, "why am I here?"_

 _In response to her question the man took the half step forward to put himself in arms reach of her and pressed his palm gently against her forehead laying his fingers down upon her head. As he did this a bright light began to emanate from his hand and enter her head and pulsate within her skull making her feel light headed. Removing his hand from her head the man placed his hand on her rib cage over her heart, as he did the same white light began to flow from his hand and into her body once more. This time as the white light entered her body and her heart, it was carried throughout her body via her veins causing her body to glow a radiant white. As this happened to her Brittany began to feel a feeling she had never felt before it was an almost pure feeling, a feeling of perfection._

 _Suddenly the man removed his hand from her rib cage and slowly her body stopped glowing as the light within her faded into her body. The man looked down at the chipette with a content expression before saying, "go my child, you have been healed". No sooner had he spoken that line did he vanish into thin air causing Brittany to shout after him._

" _Wait?... What?... What do you mean?" she called after him but suddenly the flowery field gave way and it was like she was being pulled from the environment by an invisible forceful power._

Opening her eyes in a flash the chipette quickly looked around the room with fatigued but alert eyes looking for any sign that what she had seen moments ago was actually on the same level of reality she was. After seeing no evidence of the mysterious man and realizing that she was obviously not in a field of wildflowers but still in her hospital bed made her sigh sadly, "I guess it was just a dream". The only thing that had changed since she went to sleep the first time was now Alvin laid to rest beside her, sleeping peacefully.

Coming to this very disheartening realization that it was simply all just a dream the chipette laid her head back down and began to drift off to sleep once more this time more sadly.

The next morning as Brittany slowly opened her eyes everything appeared to be bright, pure white in color, blinking a few times, and rubbing her eyes forced them to readjust to her surroundings. Sliding herself to a sitting position she stretched and yawned much like every morning but today seemed different, she felt different she felt oddly better. Unlike for the past 6 months she felt well rested and rejuvenated, not fatigued and exhausted. Much to her surprise and joy Alvin was still with her, wasting no time she woke her friend from his slumber, "Alvin wake up" she said in her regular strong voice, a voice she had not been able to use since she became sick. Her call stirred Alvin awake, finding himself looking up at her face brought happiness to his heart, "good morning, how do you feel?" he asked.

"Better" she said, "I had a weird dream last night"

Although still tired from just waking up he was curious about her dream, "what was it about?" he asked rolling onto his side and propping his head on his fist.

"I was in this field… then this man, who could have been an angel cured me" she replied thoughtfully trying to recall the memory of her dream but it was all pretty fuzzy and fleeting her memory every moment.

Alvin nodded slowly pushing himself to a sitting position, "if only it was more than just a dream".

Tossing the prospect back and forth in her head for a few moments Brittany came to the conclusion that the only way to know for sure was to test her theory and her faith, which had been strengthened from becoming sick in the first place. Bracing herself with her hands she began sliding her legs that had been too weak to support her weight for the last few weeks, to the edge of the bed. "Help me stand Alvin" she said but Alvin quickly tried to stop her. Not letting him restrain her she slid off the bed anyway, she was going to do this with or without his help. Her feet touched down on the cold tile floor but her legs almost instantly crumbled under the weight of her body causing her to fall to her knees. Having witnessed his friend's failed attempt to stand on her own, Alvin quickly jumped down beside her and tried to help her stand but she refused his help. Using only her leg muscles with some support from her arms she was able to stand, reaching out she took Alvin's hands that he was holding out for her to take to help support her. Slowly moving one foot at a time she began to walk, after a few steps with Alvin's help she pulled her hands away from his and began walking around the room on her own like she used to be able to before she got sick, her steps were a bit shaky but at least she was walking again. Alvin was astonished to say the least and only stared at the sight with his mouth slightly agape.

"Alvin I don't think it was just a dream, I think an angel did cure me" she said excitedly, barely able to contain her excitement she reached out and pulled him into tight embrace. "You've definitely got your strength back" Alvin commented noticing how tight the embrace was. "When the doctors test me today we'll know for sure" Brittany said in extreme happiness.

Later that afternoon both chipmunks sat on the hospital bed in the room with Jeanette and Eleanor as well as Miss Miller. The tension in the room was high as they all waited in high anticipation of what the doctor would say when he returned with the test results. When they took the blood samples and x-rays the doctor had commented on her unusually high amount of energy.

The doctor came in with a very befuddled expression on his face carrying the test results. "I'm sorry it took so long we wanted to run the tests a couple of times because it looks as if the cancer is… well gone… eradicated, as if it were never there" the doctor said, "we can't explain how or why".

Crying out for joy the chipette quickly grabbed her sisters and pulled them into a tight embrace. Releasing them she quickly jumped up and gave her mother a quick hug before turning her attention to the red clad chipmunk. Still very strung out on positive energy, the rambunctious redhead got caught up in the heat of the moment and excitedly grabbed Alvin by the neck of his hoodie and pulled him close and pressed her lips against his causing his eyes to widen in slight shock and disbelief. Breaking off quickly she pulled him into a blissful embrace, accepting the hug he embraced her back and held her as she wept lightly from pure joy. Alvin was still hung up on the kiss though, he was very unsure how he should construe the act, was it merely a whimsical act of passion due to the high energy level in the room or was there a stronger emotion behind it? For now it would remain a mystery but he took it and had to admit he quite enjoyed it.

Brittany's doctor wanted her to stay in the hospital for a few more days for observation and so they could run some more conclusive tests to reconfirm the first round of tests. After the tests came back stating she was free and clear of any and all things that had previously ailed her she was released back into the custody of her adoptive mother.

Two weeks later found Alvin back in California with Brittany, comfortably placed back in their little suburban neighborhood walking through the park together, "I guess an angel did cure you" Alvin commented on her miraculous recovery that had taken place not even 3 weeks prior, he was still doubtful but the evidence was pretty overwhelming.

"I guess so" she replied dreamily trying to remember the dream she had that night; as she turned her head to look at the setting sun that was sinking behind the horizon she seemed to slip into an almost trance like state.

Noticing how distant the chipette was mentally, Alvin tried to pull her back in, "hey… earth to Brittany" he said jokingly waving a hand in front of her face. Smiling at this Brittany turned to face the chipmunk giving him her full attention again.

"Where do we go from here?" Alvin asked curiously

Brittany sighed as she thought about this long and hard, "I don't know Alvin…we really don't have to change anything, we'll always be best friends, what happened definitely brought us closer and I'm happy for that".

Alvin looked at her slightly confused by her statement but shook it off quickly with a physical shake of his head, "I meant direction wise, should we go home or keep walking for a while… but yea we've definitely grown closer" he said feeling obligated to respond to her statement, deep down he was glad she mentioned it after that kiss they shared in the hospital he was very unsure how to feel about her. He felt as if they had a deep connection now, one more than friendship but he would have to put it to the test to find out for sure.

Brittany made an "oh" expression and nodded, prompting Alvin to speak again, "but about that… I was hoping we could pursue something a little more than friendship" he said almost shyly.

Hearing this prompted Brittany to stop walking, as she did Alvin stopped alongside her. Both chipmunks looked at each with two very different emotions clearly displayed on their faces, Alvin slowly played with his fingers as his face held a look of hope and anticipation. On the other hand Brittany stared at him her face a mixture of astonishment and delight. Thoughts began to bounce around in her mind so fast she could barely contain them, _'did Alvin Seville just ask me to be his….girlfriend?!'_

Yearning for clarification Brittany began opening her mouth to speak but only mouthed a few words before she found her voice, "w-what do you mean exactly?" she asked trying to keep her composure.

Hoping this would not be the fiery crash of his endeavor he swallowed hard as he drew circles on the ground with the toe of his foot, "I was hoping maybe, possibly this weekend, if you want, I could take you to dinner… sorta kinda like a date…sorta" he said.

The question hit her like a speeding freight train; practically physically reeling from the shock she struggled to keep her thoughts under control. _'He did! Alvin Seville asked me on a date!'_ over joyed by this Brittany could only continue to stare at him with wide eyes. She was also surprised by how timidly shy he was about asking her too, it was very uncharacteristic for Alvin "Heartthrob" Seville to be so nervous around a girl especially one he knew so well _'he's so cute when he's nervous though'_ she thought with an internal sigh. Coming back to reality she realized she had not yet said anything to accept or decline his offer and was still staring at him in a befuddled daze.

"So?" Alvin asked fearing rejection now more than he feared anything ever before in his life.

"Yes!" She blurted out happily, "yes I'll go out with you Alvin!"

Alvin breathed a deep sigh of relief as he gently picked up her hand slowly intertwining his fingers with hers. "I wonder where this will take us?" he asked as they began to walk down the path into the sunset together.

Sighing out her happiness Brittany laid her head on her counterpart's shoulder as they continued to follow the trail, "probably on the first steps towards a bright future…together".

Sighing Alvin shook his head, "the trail, I was talking about the trail Brittany"

"Me too…" Brittany commented with a light smile as they slowly disappeared behind the hill to begin the rest of their lives…together.

* * *

 _ **A/N: There you have it, that's it, it's over the end, no more, some people are probably sad to know this story is over other's are probably happy and even more are probably looking forward to my next endeavor. Well that might be a little while, after my last story… well technically before I finished my last story, AATC-"The Story of Us" I disappeared for like 3 years. This time I'll try to not be gone as long, I'm working on a collaboration story with a close fanfic friend of mine, MRAY 4TW. Honestly, he's doing most of the heavy lifting on that story haha. Either way, keep an eye out for that it's going to be HUGE, in the mean time I'll probably throw up a oneshot every once in a while to try and stay relevant… but with nothing more to say… until next time, my faithful readers, until next time…  
~Jake Miller out!**_


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